Eternal Family

I'm in South Carolina! We traveled all day yesterday arriving just in time to accompany our grandson's fiance to the temple for the first time. It was a wonderful evening--so full of joy and happiness and everything good. I am so grateful for eternal families! And I'm especially grateful for my family. They are wonderful.

Tonight my mother flies in--remember, the one who a few months ago broke nine ribs and her clavicle. She has healed well, and is coming for the wedding of my first grandchild to marry and her first great-grandchild to marry. It is a momentous occasion.

This afternoon D3 arrives with her family. Tomorrow D4 and D5 arrive. And then Saturday is the wedding. I wish more of the family could come, but with all the little grandchildren and duties the others have, it just isn't possible. But because we are bound for eternity the others will be here in spirit, and that adds to the joy.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Today is my father’s birthday and I’m missing him a lot. He has been gone for four years, but if he were still alive would be 90 today. Since I am the oldest of his children, many of my memories of him bring back feelings of strength, vibrancy, robustness, and protectedness. But my most endearing memories of him include scriptures.

It was from my dad that I learned to love and desire to search the scriptures. Some of my earliest recollections are of him discussing gospel topics with his friends. I was so young that the conversations didn’t make much sense, but there was no mistaking the enthusiasm, love, and diligence with which Dad approached the scriptures. He’d turn many a discussion that started out to be about sports or national news or the weather into a gospel discussion. And as a teenager whenever I had problems he’d bring up just the right scripture story or verses to answer and calm me. I grew up with gospel topics as much a part of dinner as salt and pepper.

Oh how I’m missing those gospel discussions—especially today. During the last few years of his life when his mind wasn’t what it had been he’d still desire and try to discuss with me, but it didn’t always make sense and I’d find myself avoiding his conversations because it hurt so much. One day I walked in to find him in the chair he studied in, the Book of Mormon in his lap. “I don’t understand this,” he said with tears in his voice.

“What is it you don’t understand, Dad?” I asked as I walked to his side.

“Any of it,” he said, the sadness choking him. By then I was at his side and noticed that the book in his lap was upside down. I had to hurry away so he wouldn’t see me cry.

But I know that he is now in a comfortable chair studying or if not he’s attending a gospel class taught by some great prophet. He now understands more than he ever did, and I can’t wait to be with him again and find out all he has learned—to discuss it like we used to. Oh what a reunion it will someday be!

Fire in the Belly

At the close of Alma’s beautiful sermon on the priesthood of God that is found in Alma 13, Alma says,

“But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord . . . having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest” (28-29). This reiterates a theme that runs throughout all of scripture—that we should have faith, hope and charity.

The problem is that too often we don’t recognize a difference between faith and hope. But Alma helps us understand that difference. Faith centers on the Lord Jesus Christ and means we believe what He teaches us. 

He will save us. Therefore, if we have faith we will naturally believe that we are going to receive eternal life. So hope is the next step. It is to expect eternal life.

I am often startled by my students who don’t think they are going to make it. They know they aren’t perfect and there are so many commandments and there is so much to do and  . . .  But we are saved not because we are perfect. We are saved because Jesus Christ is perfect. Therefore if we have faith in Christ, we should all place our hope (our expectation) in the fact that we are going to receive eternal life. We will be exalted.

When you live your life with that expectation you live very differently. Instead of looking at the gospel as a burden that has to be met in order to "earn" your way into the celestial kingdom, you see it as a way to show Jesus Christ how grateful you are for making your eternal life possible. That hope then empowers you.You live confidently. You live peacefully. You can withstand trials, adversity, persecution, disappointment and every other negative occurrence in life because you have hope. You know all this telestial experience is temporary and that you are on your way to a much better eternal destination.

Hope, then, is the inspiration and motivation to hang in there. Hope is the mortar that holds together the brick of our eternal mansion. Hope is peace in the heart and fire in the belly. Hope brings a smile to the face whether the sun is shining brightly or storms are raging.  

Hope is Jesus Christ.