Keith A. Erekson - Making Sense of Your Patriarchal Blessing

2022 Keith A. Erekson

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

(CIP data on file)

ISBN: 978-1-63993-064-7

eISBN: 978-1-64933-147-2 (eBook)

Printed in the United States of America

PubLitho, Draper, UT

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Book design Deseret Book Company

Art Direction by Richard Erickson

Design by Sheryl Dickert Smith and Shauna Gibby

Cover image one AND only/Shutterstock

Contents

Introduction

Your Blessing, His Promises

C learly, the message with its startling promises had come to the young woman from God. But it also did not completely make sense to her. The divine communication came in a way that was not common, though others in her family and of her faith had received similar experiences. She learned that she was highly favored of God, even chosen for a specific and important work. These promises made her rejoice in Gods tremendous mercy, but she also felt troubled. One promise in particular seemed a biological impossibility. When she told a cousin about the promise, she received encouragement from this wise woman who had herself received a similar promise that was, in fact, presently coming to pass. However, the young womans betrothed showed deep concern. For a time he contemplated calling off their engagement, but he finally came around after receiving an additional spiritual manifestation. In time, all of the promises were fulfilled, and as others around her bore witness to Gods greatness, Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19; see also Luke 1:2656; Matthew 1:1825).

This book is for you if you have already received a patriarchal blessing and now are trying to make sense of it. How can we understand Gods promises? How can we interpret the text of our blessings? How will the promises be fulfilled? How can we make sense of Gods timing? How can we find peace in a patriarchal blessing in the present ?

You already know that your patriarchal blessing provides inspired direction from the Lord in the form of guidance, comfort, and protection. But you may also want more. You may wonder if or how some of its promises could come to pass, or fear that the timing is now too late. Perhaps you face important decisions about your life, family, or career. You may struggle with feelings and fears that you are not worthy or that your life does not align to the cultural norms and expectations around you. You may be disappointed with your blessing because it feels too short or too vague or too impersonal. Like all conscientious disciples of Jesus Christ, you may wonder if you have lived and are living in the way that He desires. Your strivings matter to the Lord.

Making Sense of Your Patriarchal Blessing offers lessons and perspectives for understanding your patriarchal blessing. Each chapter unpacks a different principle, including approaching your blessing as a mystery of God, treating it like personal scripture, recognizing that it offers promises with conditions, understanding that many blessings are meant for an appointed time, and learning to find peace, even without clarity. Well begin each chapter by exploring what each principle means and does not mean, drawing on metaphors to aid our understanding. Well identify what new insights you may find in your patriarchal blessing as you apply these principles and comment on their implications for understanding. Each chapter concludes with lessons from the experiences of others who learned to understand the promises in their blessings.

Along the way, well examine stories from real people in the history of the Churchfrom the 1830s to the presentwho received a patriarchal blessing and then wrestled to understand it. All of the stories have been shared publicly by the blessing recipients and show them coming to a clearer understanding. Though they had the advantage of looking back on their experiences in hindsight, I have tried to tell the stories from the perspective of living forward, in the momentwhen the recipient did not know the outcome and exercised faith to seek and understand. These experiences are deeply personal, and to walk with them through their struggles is to tread on holy ground.

A passage from a revelation that instructed the early Saints to build a temple and a school for spiritual learning can be applied to the quest to make sense of a patriarchal blessing: Sanctify yourselves [or, meet the conditions ] that your minds become single to God [or, learn the meaning of the text ], and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time , and in his own way [i.e., offering peace without clarity ], and according to his own will (Doctrine and Covenants 88:68; emphasis added).

I hope that the principles, stories, and lessons in this book will illuminate the process, the wrestle, and the seeking involved in submitting yourself to the Lord to understand His will, His meaning, His timing, and His promises for you. Frequently, we need to change our thinking, our assumptions, our expectations, and our behaviors in order to understand the promises in our blessings. And full understanding typically comes only in hindsight, after God has unveiled the mystery to us and we can ponder His tender mercies in our hearts. Until then, we seek peace in the moment as we continue to strive. As you put forth the effort to make sense of your patriarchal blessing, ultimately I hope you find strength, direction, and peace.

Notes

Chapter 1

A Mystery of God

How can we know Gods will for us? How can we understand His thoughts? How do we ensure we are seeking His way and not our own? How can we make sense of His promises?

G od has made it abundantly clear that He knows more than we do. My thoughts are not your thoughts, He explained, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:89). Jacob added that the depths of [His] mysteries are unsearchable, and it is impossible that man should find out all his ways (Jacob 4:8). We do not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend (Mosiah 4:9). God, however, has encouraged us by dropping hints that He knows all the hidden mysteries and the wonders of eternity (Doctrine and Covenants 76:78). These mysteries and wonders are the secret things that belong unto the Lord our God (Deuteronomy 29:29). And yet, God also wants to reveal and unfold His mysteries to us (Daniel 2:28; Alma 40:3). Those who have achieved a greater understanding of their patriarchal blessing most commonly describe their experience as receiving new insight, seeing things in a different light, or gaining a broader perspective.