My mother was a woman of great faith,” recounts Avilda’s daughter. “It was Mother’s practice to never let a day go by without praying to God for his watchful care. When I was a small child growing up in Monroe Louisiana, Mother had a dream one night that she was driving along a country road with my sister and me playing in the back seat of the car. En route, my mother suddenly glanced in the rearview mirror and saw smoke and flames shooting from the trunk area. Quickly, she pulled to the side of the road, jumped out, and began searching for something to douse the flames. In a nearby gully, she spotted a rusty bucket filled with rainwater. Grabbing it, she ran back to the car and emptied the bucket on the fire. A strange dream, my mother thought as she awoke. And she let it go at that.

The next morning, Mother piled my sister and me into the car for a sixty-mile trip to attend Sacrament Meeting. About halfway there, on an infrequently traveled road, she was suddenly startled to see flames and smoke rising from the trunk of the car. My sister and I were frightened, but because of her dream Mother knew what to do. Pulling over to the side of the road, she quickly got out, ran about ten yards to a nearby gully, located a rusty bucket of rainwater, and extinguished the fire. Then, catching her breath and offering a simple prayer of gratitude, she settled back in the car and drove to church.

Avilda’s miracle story is not uncommon. Many people have experienced divine intervention from an unseen Source. Often, that intervention came at a time of crisis when other options had failed. Pure and simple, it was a gift.

What Are Gifts?

Gifts, by definition, are pure, voluntary offerings of love, indisputable evidence of the Giver’s affection. A gift cannot be earned; it is freely imparted with no expectation of repayment. Furthermore, inherent in the gift is the personality of the Giver. The gifts of God, for example, reveal his perfect attributes of character-his power, his awareness, his love-upon which believers rely and upon which their faith pivots.

These gifts-miracles-are unique in that they are inexplicable by the laws of nature. We receivers cannot duplicate them. Large or small, the gifts of God attest to his nearness and his interest in our welfare. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “God is found in the details of our lives.” Thus we can expect to find him as we struggle with relationships, finances, health and weaknesses. We discover him as we labor over difficult decisions. We become acquainted with him as we receive unanticipated warnings of danger, gain added strength to endure, and follow carefully prepared paths of escape. From time to time we glimpse him delivering unexpected bouquets of affection, those almost anonymous offerings that communicate, “I am aware. I am near. I love you.”

Gifts often come when extraordinary help is needed; gifts provide us evidence of the existence of the Giver and illustrate his active involvement in our lives. God’s gifts provide hope, anchor faith, and demonstrate that prayers are heard and answers come. One man wrote:

Our family had suffered through a string of serious illnesses that had taken their toll on our family. My husband, who had been sick for three years, had finally come to the conclusion that his business could not be saved and that he needed to liquidate the inventory to pay his creditors. He made the difficult decision to close down the company and begin to pay off $300,000 in debts–without a job! Two years later, he had managed to pay back only $100,000 by liquidating the best of the remaining inventory. To retire the last $200,000 seemed impossible and he began to despair.

On New Years day, 1993, he called a friend whom he knew to be a man of faith. After my husband had explained our situation, he and his friend decided to pray and seek God’s help. Then the friend, in the authority of the priesthood, laid his hands on my husband’s head and sought divine counsel. The words of the blessing were astonishing.

“The time for your efforts is over. Heavenly Father has prepared another way to pay your debts.”

When the blessing had ended my husband asked, “I don’t understand. What should I do?”

“Go about your daily life,” his friend answered. “Your debts are God’s now.”

Ten days later, the area where we lived experienced a massive snowstorm.

Early on the morning of January 10th, my husband received a phone call and was told that he should hurry down to the warehouse where his inventory was stored. When he arrived, he could not believe his eyes. The warehouse roof had collapsed under the weight of the snow. A water line had broken and water was gushing all over his inventory. It appeared as though a bomb had exploded. Substantially everything was damaged.

As we later gathered to consider our options, bankruptcy was the only thing that came to mind. It was a discouraging alternative, one that we had tried to avoid for several years. Then we remembered the insurance policy. Five months earlier, the thought had weighed on my husband’s mind that he should reinsure the inventory for a value equal to what we owed the creditors. Although he had to scrimp to find the money for the extra premium, he had followed the prompting.

The result?

Within six weeks from the day of the priesthood blessing we were out of debt. The insurance company paid us $200,000!

Gifts Draw Us Close to the Giver

People who receive gifts from God often consider their experiences as holy ground whereon they become acquainted with the Giver. Diverse and intimately personal, gifts are woven from a common loom, summoning within their owners deep confidence in their Father in Heaven. Placing hope in the Giver of gifts proves not to be a vain effort after all.

Sometimes receivers of gifts experience miraculous intervention, and other times gifts come as quiet love notes. In either case, those who receive the gifts experience an increase of faith so that when they encounter difficulty again, they are better equipped to once more appeal to a loving Father who has the ability to help, is indeed aware, and cares enough to help. Receivers of gifts believe that their hope is anchored to something substantial. Simply put, they believe they are not alone.

This is not to say that there is an equation for God’s intervention: A+B=C. Our definition of deliverance is seldom God’s definition. We can dictate neither timelines nor terms. Nevertheless, we can be absolutely confident that our every prayer is heard and counts, and that somewhere in the process of working through, a divine encounter will happen. A son in Utah recounts:

When Mother was dying of cancer, she asked for a blessing to know the will of the Lord. I agreed to give the blessing, but I knew it would be the hardest of my life. Not that it would be harder for the Lord. I knew that he could heal cancer as easily as a cold. But for me, I had to prepare. I dared not approach this blessing casually.

Over the next few days, I attended the temple and prayed and humbled myself before the Lord. I read the scriptures about miraculous manifestations of power and healing. I counseled with wise men that had spent a lifetime exercising their priesthood righteously. Then I began to fast. I would not eat until the blessing was given. Mother lived six hours away.

As I drove through the night, I prayed continuously. I attempted to remove all doubt from my mind. I knew that God could heal Mother; I knew that the priesthood was the power; I knew that the ordinance of anointing and sealing had been revealed for this very purpose. I had come to that point of confidence and clarity. I pushed aside the temptation to craft words and plan the blessing. I had no desire to be eloquent or clever. I only wanted to plainly state what would be dictated by the inspiration of the Spirit-and remarkably, I now felt fully prepared to pronounce the promise of healing and witness a miracle.

I will not recount my reaction to stepping into Mother’s room and witnessing her frail, weakened body. My emotions were so tender. I loved my mother. How I longed for divine permission to say the words of healing. Our family knelt in prayer. We pled for a miracle. I was sure it would come.

It did.

At the moment I laid my hands upon my mother’s head, the Spirit said, “No.”

I wasn’t prepared for the answer. I felt Mother relax and concede under my hands. The miracle followed–sweet words of comfort and peace, every word dictated by a loving influence that knew her and understood her pain. Mom was going home.

Gifts Build Faith in God

In the Lectures on Faith, the Prophet Joseph Smith laid out the fundamentals of our achieving faith in God. Imperative in that process is our having a correct idea of God’s perfect attributes of character, including power, knowledge and love. Hope and faith in God turn on the belief that he possesses these and other attributes in perfection.

Otherwise, what’s the use in petitioning God at all?

In times of urgency, we hope that God has the power to help, we hope that he is aware of us, and we hope that he loves us enough to rush to our rescue. We reach out to the Giver and plead for his gifts because we believe that he has both the ability and the disposition to grant them. In the end, perhaps there is no better way to know him.

A great example is found in the oft-told tale of the ill-fated journey of the Martin and Willie handcart companies. Having begun their westward trek late in the fall of 1856, they were caught in an early winter storm in Wyoming. Although help was quickly dispatched from Salt Lake City, the storm took a terrible toll. Some people froze to death; others starved. When the survivors had later recovered in the safety of the valley, they settled and tried to piece together their lives. Years of controversy ensued. Debating the wisdom of their journey made good fodder for backyard courts and juries.

Much later, in the setting of a comfortable, frontier Sunday School class, criticism was raised once more over the company’s shortsightedness in leaving so late in the year.

An old man in the corner sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it, then he arose and said things that no person who heard him will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity.

In substance he said, ‘I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it…. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostatized or left the Church, because everyone of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities….’ (Relief Society Magazine, January 1948, p. 8.)

It is upon our own personal holy ground that we add stories of our receiving God’s gifts to these. It is within our individual sacred space that we become acquainted with Someone who hears, who knows us, who has the ability to help, and who loves us enough to shower us with his gifts.

Jairus was a Jewish ruler. Luke informs us that Jairus’s twelve-year-old daughter was at the point of death. When all hope seemed lost, Jairus had heard that Jesus was coming, and evidently he had waited on the seashore all night anticipating the Lord’s arrival. When Jairus saw Jesus, he rushed to Him and “fell at his feet, and besought him greatly.” No time for introductions, Jairus cried, “My little daughter lieth at the point of death; I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.”

Of the father’s distress, Ted Gibbons noted,

We feel this father’s great faith and confidence in this appeal. His girl was dying. Jesus could heal her if He would. He had healed others . . . had [even] done so from a distance.

[But] their journey was interrupted by the touch of the woman with the issue of blood, and as the Savior finished speaking with her, someone from the bedside of the child came looking for her father and said to him, “Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?” (Mark 5:35).

Imagine the pain caused by those words. Christ had healed the sick. . . . But this was no longer a matter of sickness; the child was dead. “Why troublest thou the master any further?”

Don’t Listen to the Negative Voices

Jairus must have buckled under the weight of the news. But notice what Jesus did: “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue [Jairus], Be not afraid, only believe.” Jesus would not allow a negative, alternative voice to damage Jairus’s faith. In effect, Jesus said to him, “Don’t listen to that voice. What the voice is saying is not true. It is not too late. Focus on me and let’s go to your house and save the child. The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth!” And when they arrived, Jesus took the child by the hand and commanded, “Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked.”

Jesus gave the same never-to-late message to grieving Martha at the death of her brother, Lazarus: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Even now, though Lazarus had lain in the grave four days and all evidence pointed to his complete and unalterable demise, though he were dead, yet would he live! Although Martha was distraught, she remained focused on the Savior and His saving power: “But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.” And Jesus confirmed her faith in Him: “Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.”

And Lazarus did rise again. Jesus “cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” This story has obvious spiritual implications.

It Is Never Too Late

We must never listen to the alternative voices or imagine that it is too late. If we persist in sanctifying ourselves, one day the Savior will come as He did to Jairus’s daughter, lay His hands on our children as it were, and they will live. President Howard W. Hunter said, “Whatever Jesus lays his hands upon lives. If Jesus lays his hands upon a marriage, it lives. If he is allowed to lay his hands on the family, it lives.”

We must believe that the Savior can call out a wayward child, as He did Lazarus, who might be decaying in the tomb of spiritual death, and though he be dead, yet the child will emerge alive. Although the child might be bound with the graveclothes of sin, the Savior will say, “Loose him, and let him go.” The promises made by the Lord’s prophets of such deliverance are sure. To participate in God’s plan of deliverance, we must sanctify ourselves and follow the direction of the Spirit.

An Example of Improbably Redemption

Consider the following account of one father’s once-wayward boy:

Our son was dead; spiritually dead, that is. Where does one begin to describe the deep sadness and the feelings of total helplessness and loss? Even these words do not adequately describe the emotional [black hole] that surrounded and imprisoned my wife and me as we watched our son rapidly and undeterred set out to destroy not only his life but also his eternal salvation and divine appointment.

Jeff’s downward slide started in his teenage years. I still can’t believe it happened, but if it can happen to Jeff it can happen to anyone. My wife and I had loved our only son, indulged him, and wanted him to have every opportunity to be happy and feel good about himself. Jeff was the all-American boy. . . . He was also a basically good kid, although he sometimes struggled with self-worth and often associated with friends who were not the best examples. During his teenage years, he began to change; he became arrogant, selfish, and argumentative. He learned to get his way by using his anger to intimidate and exasperate us. He portrayed himself as a victim. Nevertheless, he [still generally] seemed to want to do good things, and he even encouraged one of his best friends to go on a mission. Jeff helped his friend prepare by reading scriptures with him before school. His friend was older and entered the MTC three months before Jeff’s nineteenth birthday.

That inspired Jeff and he started working with the bishop to prepare his mission papers. But after several meetings with the bishop, he stomped into the house offended one night because the bishop hadn’t shown up for their appointment. For some reason, this hurt Jeff deeply. He imagined that the bishop didn’t really love or care about him.

That single event tipped Jeff over, and he decided not to serve a mission. Thereafter, Jeff lost interest in the Church and started questioning Church policy and the validity of its doctrines. He stopped attending his church meetings and fulfilling priesthood assignments. Because he was the leader of his band of friends, who were not very active, he persuaded them to also abandon their mission plans. He began to disregard all Church standards, and he started hanging out with a rough group that frequented R-rated movies and stayed out until all hours of the night. He began coming home smelling of smoke and alcohol. Then he declared himself to be agnostic.

Because Jeff was a likable, natural leader, he attracted other misfits. He brought them to our home, freely shared our food with them, and relentlessly argued with us about our rules and standards. Soon, we had to ask him to either follow our rules or live elsewhere. This angered him, but he moved out and shacked up with people who could only be described as the dregs of society. Now he was so entrenched in this debased lifestyle that he went out of his way to fight against and live opposite to every ideal and value of the Church.

Jeff began using pot and other drugs and driving under the influence. Drugs were readily available at his workplace and from his associates. . . . He engaged in gratuitous sex with his girlfriend. He began stealing from stores to get things that he wanted. When he was broke, which was often, he would drop in on us for some quick food-and, of course, he brought his drug-using friends with him and expected us to feed them. He got a tattoo on his arm, earrings, and studs in his tongue. He would arrogantly walk into the house with his friends and proudly flaunt his newly acquired attire, piercings, and opinions. He would poke fun at the Church and its standards and express how liberated he felt now that he had adopted beliefs that aligned with his behavior.

It was all we could do to not retch and cry. I wanted to slap him and shake him from this evil state. I wondered, Where did my loving boy go? Every once in a while, I would try to calmly point out the flaws of his lifestyle and the blessings of righteous living, but he always became irate. It was as though he was possessed. He was truly past feeling. Our hearts were broken. We loved him so deeply and hurt so much for him. We greatly feared for his salvation. Our beloved son was dying, and there seemed to be nothing that we could do.

My wife and I prayed hard, night and day. We came to appreciate how Alma the Elder must have felt as he prayed for his son. We wondered, If Alma the Elder could pray for something dramatic to provide his son an opportunity to change, could we not do the same? We didn’t care how the opportunity came-a visitation from an angel or just for Jeff to hit bottom-all we wanted was for something to happen to shake him loose [from Satan's hold].

Then one night, my wife had a strong impression that we needed to stop preaching to him, acting disappointed about his choices, and looking down on him and his friends, and simply love him. So that is exactly what we started to do. A change in us had to happen before a change in our son could occur. That was not a comforting thought, but one that we embraced nevertheless. Thereafter, when Jeff would criticize our lifestyle, beliefs, or the Church, we would smile, acknowledge his opinion, then ask why he felt that way or gently change the subject. My wife welcomed his friends into our home and offered them food. Being the saint that she is, she actually hoped that they might feel the Spirit in our home. On the other hand, I found it very hard to show love in this way. I had to bite my tongue on many occasions. I tried to take cues from my wife, who comes by the gift of charity more easily. She was able to genuinely radiate love to Jeff and his friends. Over time, as I watched her, I had the impression she was the angel that I had been praying for. In the end, she became the agent that made Jeff’s change possible.

Until that ordeal, I had never been able to comprehend exquisite pain and exquisite joy. Now, we had experienced both extremes. Years before, we had prayed for a son to come into our family, and when we were blessed with him, we had tried to love him unconditionally. We had nurtured, taught, sacrificed for, and tried to raise him to be a valiant child of God. Then, watching him plummet down to depths so low that he became unrecognizable caused pain worse than death. When Jeff should have been serving a mission for the Church, he was fighting against it. In fact, I call those two years his “Mission to Hell.” The answer to our prayers and the change that took place in Jeff’s life are incomprehensible to me now.

A series of significant events took place as if orchestrated from above. These events had a profound influence on our son. First, Jeff’s missionary friend was set to return, which started Jeff thinking about their relationship. With Jeff’s new lifestyle, how would he renew a friendship that was supremely important to him? This concerned Jeff and made him think more seriously about his choices.

Next, Jeff attended a rock concert, where he and some friends were smoking pot and doing mushrooms. He passed in and out of consciousness while he was listening to the music and under the influence of the drugs. He felt out of control, and he remembered thinking that imminent death was a possibility. He reported that every time he [tried to focus on] the music, he would loose consciousness again. But every time he held onto the thought of family, he would stay present and not succumb. He struggled between the two worlds. He survived, and he realized that he had been spared. After the concert, these thoughts continued to play in the back of his mind.

Finally, at work, someone secretly placed on his desk a piece of paper that outlined the difference in behaviors between a person who chose Christ and a person who chose Satan. He noted that all the behaviors listed on Satan’s column were exactly what he was doing. For some reason this conflict played right in front of him and struck a nerve. He started crying uncontrollably and couldn’t stop for a long time.

A few days passed, and when his friend returned from his mission, he and Jeff began to hang out. Jeff was still quite moved by his recent experiences and was primed for a change. He and his friend had long talks that resulted in spiritual moments. The walls of rebellion finally tumbled down. One night, in tears, Jeff came home with his returned missionary friend and another friend and asked me for a priesthood blessing. I was floored. The once-proud Jeff now stood before me genuinely broken-hearted and of a contrite spirit. He wanted God’s forgiveness. He pled for my wife’s and my forgiveness. He wept freely in our arms, expressing love, gratitude, and remorse. In the blessing I felt impressed to express to him his Savior’s undying love, His awareness of Jeff’s circumstances, and His promise of total forgiveness. Jeff received a spiritual witness of the truth of those statements.

From that day forward, Jeff asked us to be patient with him while he tried to change. Each day he gave up a different vice. From the moment of the blessing, he never took another illicit drug or engaged in any sexual behavior. He stopped smoking one day and gave up alcohol the next. Having been previously disfellowshipped, Jeff started meeting with his new bishop to restore his membership standing and his priesthood. Our once-wayward boy is home at last! Seeing him now, I want to cry out with the prodigal son’s father, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found!”(See Luke 15:32).

Our Children Are Bound To Us

As this story illustrates, our children are bound to us through our keeping of righteous covenants-whether they come back to the fold in this life or the next. As President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “Those born under the covenant, throughout all eternity, are the children of their parents. Nothing except the unpardonable sin, or sin unto death, can break this tie. If children do not sin as John says, ‘unto death,’ the parents may still feel after them and eventually bring them back near to them again.” May we have the patience and faith to “feel after them” until the time of their redemption.

Author’s Note

This article was adapted from my book, Rescuing Wayward Children. Follow this link to learn more.)

Also, get a sample of my new 5-book series on Zion: The Three Pillars of Zion. Click here.

Mark 5:22-23.

Mark 5:23.

Ted Gibbons, Be Not Afraid – Turning to Christ in Times of Crisis, 8.

Mark 5:36, emphasis added.

See Mark 5:39.

Mark 5:41-42.

John 11:25, emphasis added.

John 11:22-23.

John 11:43-44.

Howard W. Hunter, “Reading the Scriptures,” Ensign, November 1979.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 2, 90.

“He That Believeth in Me, Though He Were Dead, Yet Shall He Live”

To the grieving Martha, Jesus explained that the power of redemption transcends this life. The Lord’s power of redemption can reach deep within the world of spirits, offer the plan of salvation, and snatch a now-repentant, believing soul from the jaws of hell. Consider the deeper meaning of the Lord’s words: “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Because we likely foreknew our children and their problems, and because we were called and prepared to help redeem them, it logically follows that we will be given power after death to seek them out wherever they are and to continue our work with them, even if that work requires our persistence up until the very last moment before the Resurrection.

Prior to his death, President Joseph F. Smith received a vivid vision of the world of the spirits, including its inhabitants, their condition, Jesus’ visit to them after His death, and the redeeming work that the Lord organized, as found in Doctrine and Covenants 138:53-56. Our stewardships extend into the spirit world.

For example, former prophets and righteous individuals-Adam, Eve, Abel, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Elias, Malachi, Elijah, “all these and many more, even the prophets who dwelt among the Nephites”-were taught by the Lord, and given “power to come forth . . . and continue thenceforth their labor as had been promised by the Lord.” That is, the righteous continue their work among those for whom they had stewardships upon the earth. As the revelation states:

The faithful elders [and women] of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.

Parents’ Work Goes On

Inasmuch as prophets’ stewardships continue among those for whom they had a responsibility, so it would make sense that righteous parents’ stewardships continue among those for whom they have a responsibility. The Prophet Joseph Smith stated, “There is never a time when the spirit is too old to approach God. All are within the reach of pardoning mercy.” We can infer that never indicates a very long time.

President Lorenzo Snow assured us, “When the Gospel is preached to the spirits in prison, the success attending that preaching will be far greater than that attending the preaching of our Elders in this life. I believe there will be very few indeed of those spirits who will not gladly receive the Gospel when it is carried to them. The circumstances there will be a thousand times more favorable.” At another time President Snow stated,

God has fulfilled His promises to us, and our prospects are grand and glorious. . . . In the next life we will have our wives, and our sons and daughters. If we do not get them all at once, we will have them [at] some time, for every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ. You that are mourning about your children straying away will have your sons and your daughters. If you succeed in passing through these trials and afflictions and receive a resurrection, you will, by the power of the Priesthood, work and labor, as the Son of God has, until you get all your sons and daughters in the path of exaltation and glory. This is just as sure as that the sun rose this morning over yonder mountains. Therefore, mourn not because all your sons and daughters do not follow in the path that you have marked out to them, or give heed to your counsels. Inasmuch as we succeed in securing eternal glory, and stand as saviors, and as kings and priests to our God, we will save our posterity.

When Is Our Work Complete?

Redemption, whenever and wherever it takes place, is our work and the work of Jesus Christ, and that work is not complete until our sons and daughters are fully taught, understand the gospel, repent with their own agency, embrace the truth, and experience redemption through the power of the Atonement. President Joseph F. Smith said,

Jesus had not finished his work when his body was slain, neither did he finish it after his resurrection from the dead; although he had accomplished the purpose for which he then came to the earth, he had not fulfilled all his work. And when will he? Not until he has redeemed and saved every son and daughter of our father Adam that have been or ever will be born upon this earth to the end of time, except the sons of perdition. That is his mission. We will not finish our work until we have saved ourselves, and then not until we shall have saved all depending upon us; for we are to become saviors upon Mount Zion, as well as Christ. We are called to this mission.

And President Gordon B. Hinckley confirmed the apostolic promise made by Elder Orson F. Whitney, quoting,

The Prophet Joseph Smith declared-and he never taught more comforting doctrine-that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God.

The Shepherd Will Find His Sheep

Children who have received baptism and then abandon the gospel are tethered to Christ by a cord that cannot be broken. Teaching this point in the form of a question, Elder Whitney asked, “Who are these straying sheep-these wayward sons and daughters? They are children of the Covenant, heirs to the promises, and have received, if baptized, the gift of the Holy Ghost, which makes manifest the things of God. Could all that go for naught?”

Then, encouraging parents to consider the eternal nature of the redemptive process and to persevere, he said, “You parents of the wilful and the wayward! Don’t give them up. Don’t cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours-long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them.”

When wayward children break our hearts by their foolish and destructive choices, we often mourn that the only option within our control is prayer, and we sometimes imagine that prayer is a weak solution for what is really needed. But to our knees is exactly where we should go. The Lord hears and answers prayers-that is an oft-repeated promise and should be our confidence. Both the Father and the Son will help us work with our wayward children. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, it is inherent in the very nature of the Father and the Son to help and bless us:

Consider, for example, the Savior’s benediction upon his disciples even as he moved toward the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. On that very night, the night of the greatest suffering that has ever taken place in the world or that ever will take place, the Savior said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

I submit to you, that may be one of the Savior’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed; and yet I wonder whether our resistance to this invitation could be any more grievous to the Lord’s merciful heart . . . I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments.

Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can’t help but bless us…. It is their nature.

Then Elder Holland extended this apostolic promise:

Listen to this wonderful passage from President George Q. Cannon teaching precisely this very doctrine: “No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments.”

Does this promise, along with other prophetic promises, not give parents of wayward children reason to hope? Does knowing the extent of our preparation not give parents of wayward children cause to reach down inside themselves and summon the strength that resulted from that preparation? As President Lorenzo Snow said, “Our prospects are grand and glorious.”

D&C 138:49, emphasis added.

D&C 138: 51-52, emphasis added.

D&C 138:57.

Joseph Fielding Smith, ed., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 191.

Lorenzo Snow, “Preaching the Gospel in the Spirit World,” Collected Discourses, 363.

Lorenzo Snow, The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, 195.

Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith, 442, emphasis added.

Orson F. Whitney, quoted in Gordon B. Hinckley’s Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 54, emphasis added.

Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1929, 110-111.

Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1929, 110.

Jeffrey R. Holland, “Come Unto Me,” Ensign, April 1998, emphasis added.

Jeffrey R. Holland, “Come Follow Me,” Ensign, April 1998; George Q. Cannon, “Freedom of the Saints,” in Collected Discourses, vol. 2, 185; emphasis added.

Lorenzo Snow, The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, 195.

Zion is built upon three covenants or pillars. The first of these pillars is the New and Everlasting Covenant. No doctrine has ever been revealed that is more glorious than is this covenant. When we abide in it, we remain absolutely safe. Here is an example of a faithful couple, who found safety in the Covenant.

Dear Larry,

My husband finished his Masters degree a year ago, but because the economy is in a free fall, we have not been able to find a permanent job. We sacrificed everything for this education. Our assets consist of a little furniture and one very old car. We depend on that car. We can’t imagine not having our car. Over the years that we have been in school, I have prayed daily that Heavenly Father would keep our car going and keep us safe when we drive around in it.

We make a little money doing contract work and teaching a dance class. We call it survival money: enough, but nothing extra. Nevertheless, we pay our tithing and attend to our callings. I have gained a great testimony of tithing and remaining true to our covenants. At times, when we have compared our budget to our bank balance, we have looked at each other and said, “If we go down, we will go down being square with the Lord.” Then we have swallowed hard and paid our tithing.

A couple of weeks ago our car broke down. For ten days it sat in our driveway while my husband and I struggled to find a solution. We prayed for help. We desperately needed a way to pay for the repairs, and we had nothing in the bank. The first week passed and then the second. We continued to pray. Then one day I walked out to the mailbox. Our tax refund had arrived in the amount of $400. We rejoiced, but it was short-lived. Our car was old and tired, and although we had tried to take good care of it, we had a feeling that the $400 would be a drop in the bucket.

On the second week, we decided to act on faith and take the car in for a diagnosis. We took advantage of our insurance policy’s free towing benefit. We took the car towed to a trusted mechanic.

Two days went by without word from the mechanic shop. We began to fear the worst, but our prayers continued. We tried to summon faith that the Lord would somehow present a solution, but we couldn’t image what that solution might be. We knew that our car was too old to pour a lot of money into repairs, but that we didn’t have the means to buy another car. We were stuck and didn’t know how to get out.

The third day came. I took a deep breath and called the mechanic. He knew our situation was difficult. He was as nice as anyone could be when they bare bad news. As he began to read the long list of repairs, my heart sank. He started with the front left side of the brake system and explained that the rotors must be fixed simultaneously. That would require repairing both the left and the right side. Then he paused as if to ascertain my reaction. When I asked if there was anything more, he said that the back brakes were shot too. He explained that his shop has a state licensing obligation to not leave certain repairs undone so that the car would be unsafe. He listed more problems with the car, and finally, when he was finished, the total ranged between $1200.00 and $1300.00!

I suppose by my silence he knew he had just delivered news like a doctor’s telling someone that he/she had terminal cancer. He gently asked if I wanted him to keep the car up on the hoists or take it down. I told him that I would call my husband, but I was pretty sure he would say take it down.

After I talked with my husband, I knelt down to offer a prayer. I said, “Heavenly Father, apparently you don’t feel we need a car.” That was an interesting idea, I thought. Then I told Him that I trusted Him. If we didn’t need a car, although it would be hard, we would somehow get by-but we would not abandon our trust in Him. And we would keep paying our tithing. If a solution existed, that solution would be found in keeping our covenants.

Within 30 minutes, the owner of the mechanic’s shop called back. He sounded baffled and embarrassed. The first thing he did was to reassure me that he and his employees were honest and careful. Now, I was baffled. I wondered why he was saying these things. Then he told me that the notes he had read to me were from one of his mechanics. Apparently, after he had spoken with me, he began to feel uneasy about the mechanic’s notes. He started to wonder if the notes were correct. He approached the mechanic, and together they poured over the notes. Then the mechanic took him to our car and showed him the car. At that point, they noticed all kinds of debris in the braking system. When they cleared it away they were astonished with what they discovered. There was nothing wrong with the back end of the car at all. In fact, the debris was causing the back breaks to malfunction.

Then they followed the brake line under the car and found that the brake fluid was empty. Strangely, they found no leak in the line. The shop owner explained to me that there was no way the fluid could leak out, but he had no explanation. Of course, that meant that there was no need to make that repair. Then when he and his mechanic examined the front right of the car, they discovered that what they had thought was a major problem was really only a minor one. The total bill would come to only $400, the exact amount that we had received from our tax return.

The shop owner was totally baffled. He told me that he didn’t understand how this could happen. It never had. I wanted to tell him that it was a miracle, but I resisted and just thanked him. When I hung up the phone, I knelt down and expressed my gratitude. I told Heavenly Father that He must feel that we really do need a car after all! And by the way, the next week we received a full-time job!

I can attest that staying true to our covenants and paying tithing keeps us safe in the Lord’s hands. I can also testify that there is no risk in trusting Heavenly Father.

*******************************************************************

President George Q. Cannon said:

No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments.

One of the monumental discoveries of our entering into and abiding in the New and Everlasting Covenant is God will take care of us. The Lord’s intention is to build our faith in him, not to confuse or injure that faith. Therefore, despite our misgivings, we are absolutely safe if we abide in the Covenant.

One of the greatest demonstrations of the safety of the Covenant is that of the ancient Israelites.

This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go. Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, [so that] they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

The Lord never forsook them, although they were often weak and rebellious. He was with them both day and night. He constantly instructed them. He provided manna and water to sustain them. For four decades of wandering, they lacked nothing! Amazingly, neither their clothing nor their shoes wore out!

At the end of Jesus’ life, just before he entered Gethsemane, he reminded his apostles of their early missions when he had purposely placed them in a condition of lack to teach them of their safety in the Covenant. He accomplished this lesson by sending them out with neither purse nor scrip. Now looking back he asked them: “When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing.” As much as the apostles needed firsthand experience with the Covenant’s safety, so do we. When we lack, we can go to the Lord, and because we are one with him in the Covenant, he will take care of us. We are safe.

Nehemiah 9:18-21, emphasis added

Luke 22:35

My article today is not long or profound; it is simply one of gratitude. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the example of my son, Matthew, who had suffered over the last three years from the effects of kidney failure, hemophilia, hepatitis, West Nile Virus, cancer, respiratory failure and grand mal seizures. After he had survived all of these maladies, and when, after multiple attempts and failures to find a matching donor, he finally was scheduled for a kidney transplant only to lose the opportunity hours before surgery because of a rare blood chemistry shift. Amazingly, the response of Matt and Kristin, his wife, was to regroup around their faith, declare their allegiance to God, and move forward toward the promised miracle.

But nevertheless, we were faced with a dilemma. The possibility of a matching kidney now seemed more remote than ever. Over the last year, we had tried almost every family member and come up short. On top of everything else, Matt had developed antibodies to eleven common antigens. Essentially, he is allergic to most kidneys. Remarkably, his sister, Katie, emerged as a perfect match, like an identical twin, but she was rejected twice because the anatomy of her kidneys made harvesting one of them risky. But she was not to be denied. After Matt’s latest disappointment on March 5th, she tried again. The family had prayed and fasted one more time, asking for a miracle. Several days later, the surgeons huddled and determined that the head surgeon could, indeed, perform the surgery on Katie, and she was offered the position.

And just like that, we had a donor!

The day after Matt’s latest disappointment, I observed Matt and Kristin’s response and wrote an article for Meridian called, “Why I Believe in God.” The article referenced the title of Matt’s journal and Kristin’s and his declaration of faith. In response to the article, our family was suddenly overwhelmed with love from well-wishers all over the world. Offers to help poured in. Some readers shared their stories or found strength in Matt and Kristin’s story. Others placed his name on temple rolls, prayed, and entered into fasts. We felt your strength. We were exhausted, and you buoyed us up. I am convinced that this is the condition of Zion-a situation of love and the absence of lack. Having written about this subject for years, I came away from this experience believing that there are many saints who could easily segue into the priesthood society of Zion at a moment’s notice, because they are already Zion people.

I am sitting here in the surgical waiting room with Buffie, my wife, Kristin, Matt’s wife, and Jason Purdie, Katie’s husband. Kristin just took a call. The surgeons have just removed Katie’s kidney successfully, and they are preparing it to transplant into Matt. So far, so good. We are tired. We took a survey, and the most sleep any of us received last night was two hours. We started at 4:30 a.m, and now we have settled in for a five-hour wait. Jason and I gave blessings to both Katie and Matt. The image of the Israelites’ day of deliverance came to mind. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to one day be a slave and the next day become a free man, walking away forever from bondage. How many prayers and tears preceded that day of days? I suppose that many people lost faith that life could ever be different. Perhaps some people stopped praying all together, imaging that their prayers were vain. I am reminded of verses in Malachi 3.

Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

That is to say, what good has it done us to serve God and keep the commandments? We look around us and see wicked people apparently happy and prospering, and yet we, who have tried to be obedient, suffer in the bondage of our circumstances, and see no relief in sight. Why are wicked delivered and we continue to languish in captivity? Where is our deliverance? Has God forgotten us?

Then, the Lord’s answer:

Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

That is to say, the Lord absolutely remembers us. In fact, a book of remembrance is kept in heaven. This book records the sufferings, declarations of faith, acts of patience, and the manifestations of devotion to God. The Lord hearkens to such people. He knows and loves those who take upon themselves and remember his name despite all odds. God claims such people as his own; they are his jewels, his most prized possessions. He promises to spare them and care for them as would a father, who cares for his devoted son.

We are not forgotten after all. We are being “written up” and polished. When our story is completed and when our shine is the brightest, the Lord will declare, “It is enough; it is finished.” Then with a strong hand, he will deliver us. He is called the Deliverer for good reason. We can count on his fulfilling that title.

We have been in the surgical waiting room a long time now. Recently, Katie’s surgeon told us that her surgery went perfectly and she is in recovery. Matt’s surgery was going equally well, and he said he had “a good feeling.” Over the past roller-coaster year, after the eight tries and seven disappointments, I have wondered why. Why do Matt and Kristin have to continue going through this agony? Why so hard? Why the delay? Then the Spirit whispered, “This has more to do with your family’s education than for Matt and Kristin’s education.” Then I remembered that every eligible person has stepped forward and invested in the outcome. This is no small decision. Considering the donation of an organ is a sanctifying event that teaches you something about the Atonement that is very personal. You can never again look at people the same way. If giving my family an experience with the Atonement was the Lord’s goal, he certainly succeeded. We will never forget this event; we all took ownership.

Matt’s surgeon just met with Kristin and informed her that Katie’s kidney that had been placed in Matt is functioning perfectly, as if it was his own. What a miracle we have experienced! Only a few weeks ago, we felt as though we were doomed to the darkness of midnight, but now we see the sun breaking on the horizon.

As we gather up our things and wait for the call giving us permission to visit Katie and Matt, I am reminded of an incident when the apostles were attempting a sea crossing by night.

     And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land.
     And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.
     But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out:
     For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.

When we find ourselves toiling in the midst of the sea, the wind contrary to us-when we are afraid and troubled, encompassed by the blackness of the “fourth watch,” the darkest time of night, when we cry out, he will speak to us “immediately,” saying, “Be of good cheer. It is I; be not afraid.” Then he will board our fragile vessel, take a seat beside us, calm the wind and storm, and navigate us safely to shore.

It is a truth. I have witnessed it time and again. And I have witnessed it once more today. Thank you for your prayers and support.

When I think back over the last three years, I wonder how anyone could have survived such an ordeal. In July 2006, Matt’s kidney failed. He only had one-mine. I had donated it to him in 1990 when both of his kidneys abruptly failed. He was only fifteen. Now he had carried around my kidney for 16 years, and it was getting old and sick. Matt had been nursing it along for the last year. The doctors had ordered several ultrasounds, and each time they had seen a couple of troubling spots, but the biopsies had come back negative. No cancer…or so we supposed.

To complicate things, Matt was born with severe hemophilia, a bleeding disorder that prevents his blood from coagulating. Because hemophiliacs hemorrhage into joints, and because blood acts like an acid on joints, causing arthritis, both of Matt’s ankles have been fused. Perhaps worse, over the years that he had received blood products to coagulate his blood, he had become infected with hepatitis C. When the doctors prescribed Interferon to clear the disease from his liver, they informed him that the Interferon could kill his kidney. Even then, they only gave him a 20 percent chance that the treatment would arrest the hepatitis.

Faced with two impossible choices, Matt chose a third alternative: Turn it over to God. That is the way he has always handled things. His faith would sustain him, but little did we know that he was about to enter the worst set of trials of his life. Matt calls it his crucible.

Remembering the First Kidney Transplant

Today is March 5, 2009. Tomorrow morning, my wife, Buffie, and I had planned to arise at 4:30 so that we could be at University Hospital in Salt Lake City for Matt’s kidney transplant. Our son-in-law, Ryan, was scheduled to be the donor. Ryan was the last of a long list of potential donors, who, over the past ten months, were cancelled out for one reason or another. Buffie and I would have been accompanied at the hospital by our daughter, Lindsay, who is Ryan’s wife, Kristin, who is Matt’s wife, and Ryan’s parents, Lee and Tani.

The last few days have filled me with emotional memories. When I donated a kidney to Matt in 1990, I thought I was pretty tough. Then when the day came to check into the hospital, I fell apart. I was scared. Tears came easily, and I was embarrassed. A few days ago, Ryan asked me some questions about the upcoming operation, and soon he had to stand up and leave the room. Lindsay asked me to stop explaining.

My donating a kidney totally changed my life. On one occasion I told Ryan that being a donor is an experience that I would not deny anyone, especially a man. Whereas a woman can give birth, the experience of giving life escapes a man. When his wife is giving birth, he might appreciate what is happening, but he cannot quite understand the miracle that his wife is experiencing.

To give of your body so that someone might live approximates the Atonement. Donating a body part is as though the testimony of the Atonement is being carved into your being. Suddenly, the Atonement is no longer theoretical. In a very real way, the Atonement is part of you. You gain an in-depth appreciation of the Savior that you might not achieve otherwise, not even through temple proxy work. You can never look at people the same way. The entire focus of your life changes. Being a donor defines your life. It is never forgotten by the family. It becomes part of the family’s heritage. The blessings seem to redound to other family members and everyone who is touched by the event.

Ryan is our latest hero. Our other children who also tried to be donors are heroes: Gavon, Rebecca, Katie and Justin. The friends who stepped forward are heroes, too. It is no more possible to express our gratitude to them for trying to save our son’s life than to express gratitude to the Savior for saving our eternal lives. All of them understand something about the Savior that they never knew before, and they are forever changed.

The Crucible

In the summer of 2006, Matt was in and out of the hospital repeatedly. He was experiencing kidney failure, but some of his symptoms were atypical. But because he was growing worse, the doctors determined to remove the failing kidney, which they usually don’t do. Perhaps the Interferon to clear the hepatitis from the liver was the culprit. Even after the kidney was removed, Matt’s symptoms persisted which was a mystery to the doctors.
Matt began dialysis. We hoped it would be a temporary fix until he could receive a transplant in a couple of months. Little did we know that he would spend the next 2 ½ years confined to a dialysis chair–four hours a day, three times a week. During those years he would forget what it felt like to feel well. Whereas a kidney will completely clean the entire blood supply every 1-2 minutes, dialysis cleans the blood supply with 30% efficiency every two days. The buildup of toxins leaves a dialysis patient constantly exhausted and often feeling sick.

If hepatitis, kidney failure and dialysis weren’t big enough bombshells, the next piece of news was. When the doctors removed the kidney from Matt’s body, they discovered that it was cancerous after all-renal cell carcinoma, a very deadly cancer. More tests would be required to see if the cancer had spread. If it had, it would most certainly kill him. The initial results were promising, but to make sure, Matt would have to remain on dialysis for at least two years, long enough to rule out any possibility that the cancer would return. If the doctors decided to immediately give Matt another kidney, his immune system would have to be suppressed so that he would not reject the kidney. If there was even a trace of cancer in his system, his suppressed immune system would not be able to fight back, and the cancer would quickly overwhelm him.

But there was more bad news to come. Matt’s health continued to spiral downward, and trips to the emergency room became a normal occurrence. Buffie and I shuddered every time the phone rang in the middle of the night. To allow Kristin to stay at home with their three little girls, I became the driver. Typically, we would end up at University Hospital, some 40 miles north of us, where Matt’s specialists were located.

By August, we were becoming more and more concerned for Matt’s life. Due to respiratory failure, which he would experience again, he was in Intensive Care on a ventilator in an induced coma. One day, after prayer and contemplation, Buffie came to me and said, “I think Matt has West Nile Virus.” She was so certain that she insisted that he press the doctors to begin testing. The doctors reacted with skepticism, but agreed to test. What could it hurt to check it out? They learned a lesson that I learned early in my marriage-Believe a mother’s feelings. Sure enough, Buffie had been right; the tests came back positive. The doctors discovered that Matt had been suffering with West Nile Virus for at least three months. That had been the cause of his illness, not kidney failure.

Suddenly, we realized that a strange miracle had occurred. If Matt hadn’t contracted West Nile Virus, which had caused the symptoms that prompted the doctors to remove Matt’s kidney in the first place, the cancerous kidney would still be in him. It is rare for doctors to remove a failing kidney. They would rather keep it in and avoid another surgery, especially in a hemophilia patient. If the kidney had remained, the cancer would have spread, hastened by the transplant, and before anyone could have diagnosed the cancer it would have been too late. Therefore, in a remarkable set of circumstances, God had preserved Matt’s life with the West Nile Virus!

I would like to report that Matt and Kristin sailed through these adversities without a hiccup in their faith. But that would not be true. Even Job and Joseph Smith suffered lapses when the crush of adversity became overwhelming. Matt reminds me that most of the book on 1 Nephi is about the journey and not about arriving. But each time they have been beaten down, they have somehow found a way to get back up, find their way back to God and try again. Despite what they are feeling inside, they exhibit faith in public, and that is why they continue to inspire people who are also carrying tremendous loads. It is okay to hurt; it is okay to lapse; it is just not okay to abandon God or accuse him.

Other Miracles

Matt is no stranger to miracles. When he was twelve, I was impressed that he needed a special priesthood blessing. We had been hearing about a strange new virus called HIV that might be infecting the blood pool from which the clotting factor for hemophiliacs was manufactured. In Matt’s blessing, he was promised protection and a long life. He needed that protection. Late one night, Buffie and I received an urgent call from the pharmaceutical company that the batch of medicine we had on hand was contaminated with HIV. We had given Matt an infusion from that batch only hours earlier.

A few years later, we came to more fully appreciate the power of that priesthood blessing. During the 1980s, some 95% of hemophiliac boys were infected with HIV and many died of AIDS. Buffie’s cousin was one of the casualties. Almost an entire generation of hemophiliac males was wiped out within a matter of years by their simply taking medicine. But Matt was spared. His case was so remarkable that the doctors asked for a blood sample for research. There was no question that Matt had been exposed to HIV multiple times, but he never tested positive for the antibody. The doctors couldn’t figure out why, but we knew. You can’t see a priesthood blessing under a microscope.

Matt was the recipient of another set of miracles in 1990, when he needed his first kidney transplant. During that time, Buffie and I were testing to see who could donate, when I was abruptly cancelled out. This troubled me because six months before Matt’s kidneys failed I had received a strange impression that I would someday donate a kidney. The reason for my being canceled out was because I had nearly died of nephritis when I was eleven. Nephritis is a complication of strep throat that attacks kidneys. The doctors told me that my kidneys were likely damaged and I couldn’t donate. I took my concern to the Lord, and felt an impression to go to my bishop, ask for a blessing, and my kidneys would be fine.

After the blessing, I begged the doctors to reconsider. When they finally consented, they discovered that my kidneys were perfect. I became the first nephritis patient to ever donate a kidney, and Matt was only the second hemophiliac to receive a kidney transplant. We were so rare that our case was written up in a medical journal.

Matt’s miracles would continue. Early in their marriage, Matt and Kristin discovered that they could not conceive children. On the fertility scale, Matt was almost non-existent. To complicate things, Kristin was suffering with endometriosis that eventually cost her one ovary and almost the second. To save the remaining damaged ovary, the surgeon scraped and wrapped it in gauze and hoped for the best. After the surgery, Kristin was given Lupron, a drug to arrest the endometriosis by sending her into temporary menopause.
The combination of the operation and the sudden cessation of hormones caused her to become sick and put on weight, cruelly mimicking pregnancy. Worse, she developed a large stomach obtrusion that the doctors feared was a tumor. Almost seven months into the treatment, the doctors ordered an ultrasound that the lump was not a tumor, but a baby! A previous priesthood blessing had guaranteed Matt and Kristin would have children. Once again, we experienced the unequalled power of the priesthood. But the miracles didn’t stop there. Now they have one adopted daughter and two natural daughters-from parents who were physically incapable of having children.

The Price of Blessings

Of course, all blessings come with a price. Matt was now dealing with hepatitis C, renal cell carcinoma, dialysis, and West Nile Virus, and of course his ongoing hemophilia. I remember the words of an early priesthood blessing, one of many that would follow. The language compared Matt’s ordeal to stepping into a fiery furnace, as did the three Hebrew youths. He was promised, as were they, that one day he would emerge from the furnace without even the smell of smoke on his clothes. Until then, the Lord would stand with him in the furnace and protect him. From that point forward, he has lived from prayer to prayer, fast to fast, and blessing to blessing. Nothing except the intervention of God could have seen him through.

Now the fun began. The West Nile Virus sapped Matt’s energy. He began to go downhill fast. During those months, he hadn’t the strength to climb a set of stairs to his bedroom. He would spend hours, sitting in his front room, staring out the window at people living their lives normally, and wondering what it would feel like to walk to the mailbox and retrieve the mail. Twice, Matt became so weak that he felt his spirit try to separate from his body. He would struggle to hang on, knowing that if he relaxed he would be gone. He experienced fainting spells. He labored to get enough oxygen in his lungs. Twice, he went into respiratory failure, and he was placed on a ventilator in an induced coma.

I lost count of how many times I rushed him to the emergency room. Once, I rushed to his home, only to find him losing consciousness. He looked at me hopelessly, and said, “I can’t hold on anymore.” We called the paramedics, who transported him to the hospital. On another occasion, he experienced several grand mal seizures and was spitting up blood. We called the paramedics again. My older son, Gavon, and I arrived at the hospital moments later only to see Matt thrashing about with another seizure. The seizures had been caused by West Nile Virus and out-of-control blood pressure that skyrocketed to stroke levels then plummeted to the point that he would lose consciousness. The doctors feared that his heart had been damaged by the onslaught.

One morning, after he had been released from the hospital, Buffie and I drove to Matt and Kristin’s house to watch the children while Kristin took Matt to the doctors in Salt Lake. When he opened the door, nothing could have prepared us for the shock of seeing him. Overnight, his hair had turned silvery gray and his skin had turned a dark bronze. He ended up being admitted. The doctors couldn’t explain by his hair had suddenly turned gray, but they guessed that it might have happened because of the intense trauma brought on by the seizures. The jaundiced skin was another guess-maybe the hepatitis in his liver or perhaps a temporarily blocked gall bladder or liver duct.

Finding a Donor

Over time, many of the severe symptoms of his conditions declined, and life settled into a routine. Dialysis on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; part-time work at LDS Family Services on Tuesday and Thursday. (Matt is a therapist there.) The weekends were reserved for Kristin and the girls. The fact that we had come this far was truly a miracle. The priesthood blessings were being fulfilled. The cancer had not spread and the hepatitis was gone. The West Nile Virus had become less troublesome. He was experiencing bouts of paralysis because his dialysis catheter was failing, causing his Ph and electrolyte levels to rollercoaster. But another surgery to replace the catheter resolved that problem. Overall, Matt was recovering-enough so, that the doctors cleared him to receive a transplant. He had remained cancer-free for two years, and that was the echelon to proceed with the transplant.

Why we thought finding a matching kidney would be a slam-dunk, I do not know. Nothing had ever come easily for Matt and Kristin. Divine intervention had always been required. Finding a kidney donor would be no different.

In the summer of 2008, we started with Gavon, our oldest. He was cancelled out abruptly by a condition that we never had supposed. That was when we first heard that Matt had antibodies to many common antigens in the blood. Basically, he was allergic to the makeup of most kidneys. Over the months, seven people tried and failed to become a donor. No matter what, we could not find a match.

Our son, Gavon, tried three separate times, and failed. Our daughter, Rebecca, tried and failed. Our son-in-law, Justin, tried and failed. Several friends, tried and failed. Then our daughter, Katie wanted to try, but she had just had a baby. The doctors insisted that she wait for three months. When she finally began to test, she emerged as a perfect match-like an identical twin. We were elated! Finally, we had a solution.

Katie sailed through the tests, and the doctors were ready to set a transplant date. By October, she only had one more test to go, and that was supposed to be a cinch. This test was just to help the doctors plan the surgery. Early that morning of the test, Matt was awakened by the transplant office and offered another kidney. A 15-year-old girl had passed away and her kidney was a good match. Matt thought about it for a few minutes then turned it down. After all, his sister was a perfect match, and she was taking the last test that morning. Buffie and I had gone to the temple that day. When we returned, we received a call from our sobbing daughter. She had failed the last test because the arteries emerging from both of her kidneys were only half an inch long–not nearly long enough to splice into Matt.

So just like that, Matt lost two kidneys in one day.

Why I Believe in God

That was a bad day. We were out of options. Matt responded with typical faith. He didn’t want just any kidney, he would say, he wanted the kidney. God had promised, and he would deliver. Matt saw his responsibility as enduring cheerfully in faith. We knew that he and Kristin were hurting. We saw the tears; we heard the anger. But we also watched them regroup and return to God, who had always sustained them. Both the intensity of their trials and their ultimate response to them left us shaking our heads.

After that, Matt began to write down his experiences in a journal with the hope of helping other people. For several months, while he sat in a dialysis chair, he would remember his trials and the Lord’s mercies. Then on Christmas day, he presented the journal to us. He called it “Why I Believe in God.”

I wonder if I would have that level of courage? I wonder if I could cry my allegiance to God over and over despite the setbacks and the disappointments?
Today, the transplant was canceled just hours before the surgery, and Matt and Kristin are being tried again. Today marks the third time they had come within an inch of liberty only to be thrust back into captivity. In a bizarre twist of fate, Matt’s chemistries changed within the last few weeks, leaving him incompatible with Ryan. No one knows why. It just happened. Maybe because the doctors gave him an immunization shot a month ago. Ryan and Lindsay can’t stop crying; neither can Kristin, Buffie and the rest of the family. Matt is too numb to cry. He just stands in his living room and stares at all the gifts from congratulating friends. Literally hundreds of people are invested in the outcome. We’ve spent hours calling people to undo the preparations: Relief Society dinners, babysitting schedules, transportation. It feels like waiting nine months for a baby, then coming home empty-handed because the child was stillborn. Now, with all hope dashed, Matt and Kristin have to find a way once again to dig down deep into that place of crucible where prophets were purified and polished and emerged as gold. And remarkably they did.
No Risk in Trusting God

Without hesitation, they still can bear testimony that there is no risk in trusting God. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is more than a culture to them. It is power that they have drawn upon repeatedly for every eventuality in their lives. It binds together their marriage and their family with a seal that cannot be broken. It has healed and upheld them. It has drawn down heaven to earth and saved them. I have heard Matt bear his testimony in the words of Alma: “I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me” (Alma 36:27).

Today, we hurt. We are disappointed and exhausted. We do not understand how we can continually come within a breath of relief only to have it snatched from our hands. We cannot see a solution. And yet there is hope; there is always hope. If there is a God, there is hope. We recognize that our circumstance is the perfect formula for a miracle. Therefore, we will regroup around our faith as we always have, and return to the Source from which our blessings have always come. Despite the present difficulty, we are determined to stand firm in our faith and, like Matt and Kristin, cry out our allegiance to God, who has always saved us. We fully expect that there is a glorious ending to Matt’s journal, and it will sum up perfectly his thesis, “Why I Believe in God.”

A friend recounted an experience in which he was buffeted by an evil influence for nearly a year. Despite numerous prayers, frequent fasts and priesthood blessings, he could not shake the relentless and violent onslaught. One morning, having been driven to his knees with the feeling of hopelessness, he pled for help, and this time a name entered his mind. Immediately, he arose and made a phone call to a man whom he knew to be a worthy priesthood bearer. He explained the war he had waged for the last twelve months and asked his friend for a blessing.

Suddenly, the evil influence departed. The powerful blessing had provided my friend the long-sought-after relief that he had desired. By the power of the priesthood, the evil influence had been cast away and my friend has not been vexed by that evil influence since.

But the cause of his affliction startled him. During the blessing, the priesthood holder revealed that some 35 years earlier my friend had inadvertently opened a door for Satan to get a foothold, establish a residence, and eventually buffet him mercilessly. Now, over three decades later, he was suffering the effects. What had happened? My friend knew immediately. On a youthful lark, he had once allowed a palm reader to foretell his future. As fate would have it, she had made a remarkably accurate prediction. That single innocent flirtation with evil had created a small breach in my friend’s soul, which breach had allowed Satan an opportunity to plant a seed that would grow until it became incredibly destructive. Now only divine power could excise the infection.

When Questions Become Doubts

Satan utilizes disobedience and false teachings or ideas to cause a breach in our souls through which light hemorrhages. Then he enters through the gash and drains us of truth: “And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.” One of Satan’s tricks is to transform our questions into doubts. Whereas questions are healthy and the vehicle by which we progress, doubts retard progress and bring us to a standstill-even to regression. If we are not careful, Satan will turn our questions into doubts; then our testimony begins to topple.

How does he manage this slight-of-hand? One strategy is to convince us to zero in on a single issue and give it increasing weight. Because the human mind can only think one thought at a time, he convinces us that a certain issue is the one that should occupy our attention. If we buy into his temptation, that issue will eventually cause us to discount everything else. We will begin to view that issue as though we were looking through a magnifying glass. Over time, it will appear larger and larger, and soon it will overshadow all else that we once believed to be true. At such times, we must regroup and remember what we know to be true and to review what evidence we have. Then things will come back into perspective, and we can give proper weight to the troubling issue. With persistence, the issue will return to what it should be–a question rather than a doubt.

Seeing Only Red

Satan will use a troubling issue as a trigger, and every time we bump up against it, he will shout in our ears falsehoods and lies. We can expect this to be automatic.

Another Satanic strategy is to get us to see everything through a filter. For example, if we have a problem with the color red, we tend to pick out every red thing in our environment to the exclusion of all other colors. Never mind that trees have lovely green leaves, blue birds wing above us and white-capped mountains glisten with crystalline snow–red is all that we see. Are we not amazed that within a couple of years, Satan talked the majority of the Nephites out of having experienced the night that appeared as day when the Savior was born? The event that had once caused them to collapse to the ground in astonishment was now dismissed as a phenomenon of nature:

“And it came to pass that from this time forth there began to be lyings sent forth among the people, by Satan, to harden their hearts, to the intent that they might not believe in those signs and wonders which they had seen….and the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen–Imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil, to lead away and deceive the hearts of the people; and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again, insomuch that he did blind their eyes and lead them away to believe that the doctrine of Christ was a foolish and a vain thing.” 

As disconcerting as some issues may seem, they are really not as large as Satan would portray them to be. Nevertheless, we often allow these issues to carry much more weight than they deserve. Beyond all other considerations, we must never discount our testimonies and the evidence we have of God’s miracles in our lives. We must never allow our questions to set at risk what we value most: our eternal relationships and the promises of salvation and exaltation that gospel covenants provide.

The Leaven of Satan

We recall that Jesus cautioned his apostles to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod (Mark 8:10-21). Leaven, of course, is another word for yeast, the ingredient that makes bread rise. Jesus was cautioning his disciples against allowing the words of the Pharisees to be planted in their souls. What starts as a little thing soon expands to overwhelm its host. Such is the leaven of Satan.

How many people do we know who have bumped up against a difficult doctrine, a disturbing piece of historical data, or who have just plain been offended by a Church leader or another member then succumb to Satan’s advances and allow him to introduce his leaven? Over time, that leaven expands until questions become insurmountable doubts and offenses become felonies, and those people who are troubled by these things now interpret everything about the Church through the dark filter of Satan’s lie.

Like cancer, the leaven of Satan will take root in our souls and grow into a briary tangle that is calculated to destroy us. According to Nephi, to avoid implantation we must give no heed to any temptation, no matter how insignificant it might seem. We must neither dabble nor consider nor partake. In Nephi’s words, “we heeded them not.”  The only solution to rid Satan’s leaven from our souls is an infusion of light and truth coupled with divine intervention, typically through the priesthood. Of ourselves, we are simply not strong enough to take on the power of Satan and come off conquerors.

The Leaven of Christ

On the other hand, Alma speaks of leaven in another way. The word of God, he says, is like a seed. Like the evil leaven of the Pharisees, the good seed is also planted by an external force-the Holy Ghost. Over time, if the seed and its growing motions are not resisted or cast out by our unbelief, the seed will grow into “the tree of life…springing up unto eternal life.” If we will nourish that good seed, Alma says, it will begin to swell then sprout and eventually grow into a bearing delicious fruit.

Once the seed or leaven of Christ takes hold in the fertile ground of our receptive soul, the Father will direct the growth, oversee our education, and teach us the sublime intricacies of the gospel and its covenants. Moreover, he will give us power to abide the precepts of the gospel covenants.  Over time, the good seed will become a part of us until we are totally leavened by it. Soon, we discover that the fruit of the gospel that comes from the seed tastes delicious; it is desirable to make one happy; it is most sweet above all other fruit; it is white to exceed all whiteness; and it is the most joyous to the soul. We will have no desire to depart from it. As we become Zionlike by the leavening power of the word of God, we will feel no urge to be drawn back to the great and spacious building-Babylon. The word simply tastes better, looks better and feels better than anything Babylon has to offer.

Questions vs. Doubts

Speaking of questions vs. doubts, Isaiah asked the “question of questions,” which each of us must answer or ever remain vulnerable to Satan’s leaven. Prophesying of the Savior and his mission, Isaiah suddenly launched the question: “Who shall declare his generation?” That is to say, who is capable of discovering the origin of Jesus? Is He really the Son of God, generated by the Father, Himself, or is He just a great teacher and religious leader? The answer to this question gives us the key to answer every gospel question and reveal the truth of all things. Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:

It is a true principle that “no man can say [or, rather, know] that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (1 Cor. 12:3.) The testimony of Jesus, which is also the spirit of prophecy, is to know by personal revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. In the full and complete sense of the word no one ever knows that Jesus is Lord of all except by personal revelation; and all persons to whom that testimony or revelation comes are then able to declare His generation, to assert from a standpoint of personal knowledge that they know that Mary is his mother and God is his Father. And so, in the final analysis it is the faithful saints, those who have testimonies of the truth and divinity of this great latter-day work, who declare our Lord’s generation to the world. Their testimony is that Mary’s son is God’s Son; that he was conceived and begotten in the normal way; that he took upon himself mortality by the natural birth processes; that he inherited the power of mortality from his mother and the power of immortality from his Father-in consequence of all of which he was able to work out the infinite and eternal atonement. This is their testimony as to his generation and mission.  

Our questions concerning the reality of Christ and His generation, the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the actuality of the restoration of the true Church of Jesus Christ or any other essential doctrine can only be known by the revelation from the Holy Ghost-his planting true leaven-the good seed, the word of God-in our souls and our allowing that leaven to expand within us.

Our Choice

In one way or another, the leaven of Satan or God will be implanted within us. Try as we might, it is unavoidable. So we have a choice to make: Which leaven will we allow to be placed in our souls? Both leavens have the power to expand and fill us. Both have the capacity to transform us into their likeness. If we entertain the dangerous leaven, it will soon swell and appear logical and essential; we will most certainly dismiss the truth as a myth. But if we will allow the leaven of God to swell within us, it will grow into the image of the Bread of Life.

3 Nephi 1:17, 22; 2:1-2

1 Nephi 8:33

Alma 32:40-41

See Alma 32:28-41

See D&C 84:48

See 1 Nephi 8:10-12, 30

Isaiah 53:8

See Moroni 10:4-5

Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah: The First Coming of Christ, p.472

Do we allow unanswered questions fell our tree of testimony or grow it? Just how much are we willing to risk or obsess on a question when weighty matters are at stake? Deciding what matters is one of the first steps to leaving Babylon and becoming a Zion person.

About twenty years ago, I had a gospel question that vexed me. Despite my best efforts, I could not make sense of it. After pondering, praying and fasting, I still suffered with the question. The experience taught me that in the delay there are blessings, if we will allow them. The first blessing that I experienced was the question’s forcing me to a point where I had to decide once and for all if the question really mattered. Was the root system of my testimony so flimsy that this issue could topple my tree of belief? After a little deliberation, I decided that my roots of testimony ran deeper than that, and I concluded that I would not let the issue matter. It could wait. What I didn’t understand at the time was that by setting aside my demand for an answer I opened the door for the answer to come.

The purpose of delay

The Lord never asks us to travel a road without some prior preparation. Faith builds upon faith as the Holy Ghosts spoon-feeds us one precept at a time. Questions are often planted by the Spirit as invitations to learn the next concept. A quick survey of the scriptures reveals the Lord’s use of questions to prod righteous people to stretch and to learn. But we can stop the process and fell our tree of testimony by becoming frustrated with the process or getting stuck on a challenging question. When the answer is not immediately forthcoming that does not mean that a satisfactory answer does not exist. Perhaps the Lord’s delay serves as a test of faith or a motivator to search the scriptures and prophets for answers to this and other questions. Often, in the process of seeking an answer we stumble upon a potpourri of truth.

The priesthood matters

Every person’s journey to answers is unique. Here are a few of the markers along the course that I traveled to gain my answer. When I was eleven, I was stricken with Nephritis, a complication of Strep Throat. My kidneys began to shut down and I was at risk of developing heart damage. A health blessing healed me. Twenty-eight years later, when my son suffered kidney failure, I was able to donate a kidney to him. It had never happened that a person who had contracted Nephritis had donated a kidney. Our situation was so rare that it was written up in medical journals. But the part the author of the article left out was the part about the priesthood blessing that I had received from my bishop so that I could donate. He promised that my kidneys would be healed from the effects of Nephritis and I could give my son a kidney. Even the doctors could not attribute the rarity of this situation to anything than that of divine intervention.

I have an abiding testimony of the restored priesthood. My wife and I have ten children-three boys have hemophilia, a severe bleeding disorder. Additionally, we have dealt with kidney failure, Crohn’s Disease, potentially paralyzing broken neck and back, Hepatitis, and West Nile Virus. We have seen several miracle babies come to our children who were clinically incapable of having children. One doctor compared the miracle to parting the Red Sea. We have seen homes and jobs appear when all seemed lost. The priesthood matters.

Years ago, one Halloween night I received a call from a friend. Our boys had been playing on his roof, and my son, Gavon, had stepped off and landed on his head. When I arrived, Gavon was unconscious and bleeding from both ears. The medics rushed him to the hospital. When I stepped into his room, I was not prepared for what I was about to see. Gavon’s face was badly swollen; blood continued to seep from his ears-a sign of concussion; his right collarbone had a large bump as though something was trying to protrude through the skin. I was told that his clavicle was broken badly. The doctors also suspected a broken neck or back.

My friend and I gave Gavon a priesthood blessing then the boy was wheeled away to Radiology. Perhaps an hour later, a doctor approached me with a handful of x-rays. His speech was very clinical. He pointed out bones, growth plates and the obvious concussion.

“Has the bleeding from the ears stopped?” I interrupted him. “Is there any brain damage?”

“The bleeding has stopped and there is no damage,” the doctor said.

“What about breaks? His back? His neck?”        

“No breaks.”

“Not even his collar bone?” I asked astonishedly.

“Nothing. He will probably have a headache for a few days.”

Gavon woke up 24 hours later with the predicted headache, not remembering anything expect standing on the edge of the dark roof. His bruising was gone within a few days and he was back playing carefully with his friends.

Over the course of nearly 37 years of marriage, our family has existed from one priesthood blessing to the next. The priesthood matters.

Redemption matters

I doubt that there was ever a more unprepared missionary than I. Having come from a family that was disintegrating, I found myself confused about the Church, especially its doctrines concerning priesthood and eternal marriage. Somewhere in my adolescence I decided that a mission was not for me. I wasn’t trying to be rebellious; I had actually convinced myself that the Lord didn’t want me to go. We can convince ourselves of almost anything of we try hard enough. We can even convince ourselves that important things don’t matter.

Nevertheless, as my 19^th birthday approached, the idea of a mission seemed to press relentlessly upon my mind. Finally, I decided to pray and get Heavenly Father’s word once and for all that He didn’t me to serve a mission. As ridiculous as it sounds now, I was actually asking to be officially excused. So I prayed. When the answer didn’t come I prayed some more. And this went on for a month.

One day when I was walking around campus, minding my own business, a sudden flood of light entered my body. I was so astonished that I looked down at my feet, which seemed to be standing above the ground. I felt within me an actual call from God to serve a mission. What was even more remarkable was all the confusion, doubt and fear left me in an instant, and they were replaced by excitement and enthusiasm. Now I wanted to go! I met with the bishop that weekend, and within four weeks I received a call to Argentina. I have always been amazed that the Lord rescued and redeemed such a confused young man as was I and set me on a course that has blessed my life ever since. Redemption matters.

The Book of Mormon Matters

Having officially been called on a mission, I now felt the weight of unpreparedness settled upon me. I had infrequently attended seminary, and I had never read the Book of Mormon. I was horrified that I knew nothing, and within weeks I was supposed to be teaching the Argentine people the gospel of Jesus Christ. Motivated by panic, I began to read the Book of Mormon.

Having always been fascinated by writing, I read the Book of Mormon with a continuous string of questions flowing through my mind. For example, I asked myself if anyone, even the greatest literary genius of all time, could have written such a book-within 60 days! One would have to have had a fabulous knowledge of the Jews and the Law of Moses. One would have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible in order to mesh its teachings with this new volume. One would have to have the skill of assuming the voices and styles of multiple people, and one would have to accurately explain three separate civilizations that existed from the Tower of Babel to 400 A.D. One would have to forward geographic locations and archaeological data that would only be proven correct a hundred or more years later. Then the book would have to hold up to criticism at every level for nearly two hundred years. Finally, the book would be bold enough to carry a one-of-a-kind guarantee that the truth of it could be known by honest seekers by a direct answer from God…and millions would then attest that the guarantee was valid. Who would dare says such things? Who but a prophet could write it? People could criticize it, but who has ever duplicated it?

When I completed the Book of Mormon, I had an intellectual testimony, but I wanted the answer from God. That would be the clincher. If the book was true, he would live up to the promise made at the end. And so I prepared myself and prayed. I prayed for three hours one night! I was determined to not arise until I had my answer. Then it came. In an experience too sacred to relate in detail, a palpable light burst through the ceiling of my room and entered my body. It started at my head and flowed down through me with the feeling of coming in from the cold and drinking a warm fluid. The light burned out every doubt and filled me with a feeling of happiness and peace that I had never experienced. It enveloped me for a very long time, and gradually withdrew when I said I had had enough. Now I knew, and I needed no more proof. Thirty-nine years later, I can still remember the feeling and its impact on me. I absolutely know that the Book of Mormon is true, as is Joseph Smith, the Prophet who translated it. My testimony of the Book of Mormon matters.

Eternal Marriage Matters

I think Heavenly Father is the ultimate romantic. I believe that He loves a love story and He delights in finding individual ways to introduce His sons and daughters. My wife and I had a unique love story. Elder Maxwell was fond of saying there are no coincidences. I met Buffie when I was seventeen and she was fifteen. By chance, my little singing group had been asked to perform between acts for the MIA June Conference in Salt Lake City. That was a big deal for Boise kids. We had never even seen a mall, let alone a big city.

After one performance, a happy, rotund man approached us and said that he wanted to introduce us to “Mr. Music” in Salt Lake. We were all starry-eyed. We imagined fame and fortune were just around the corner. We got into our car and followed this man to a little apartment up above the Capitol building. When we knocked on the door, a little red-headed girl with big dimples opened. That was our introduction, but neither of us thought anything about it until four years later when I had returned from my mission.

Fast-forward to February 3, 1972. One night, I was eating a hamburger in the cafeteria at BYU. Suddenly, I heard a voice call, “Larry Barkdull! Is that you?” I looked over and saw Buffie with a date. I ran over and hugged her. (I didn’t care about that other guy.) We were just two old friends reuniting after years apart. That night I called her and we talked for three hours. The next day we had a date, and the next day, too. On Sunday, we drove to Salt Lake to visit her mother. On the way home, we were talking lightly, minding our own business (I seem to always be minding my own business when inspiration comes.) We had just pulled up to her apartment when a sudden powerful feeling washed over Buffie and she couldn’t catch her breath.

“Oh my!” she exclaimed. “I’m seeing you as though….” She couldn’t describe her feeling. She just stared at me as if in shock. “What does it mean?”

Then the feeling enveloped me. I was suddenly grateful that I wasn’t driving. “It means we are supposed to get married,” I said.

Buffie nodded, took a deep breath, and said, “I know…and I don’t love you yet!”

Well, she got over it and managed to tell me that she loved me a week before we got married. The next day I gave her a ring, and two months later we were sealed for eternity in the Salt Lake Temple.

As unique and challenging as was our courtship, we always look back on Heavenly Father’s “introduction” and remember that our eternal marriage started with a remarkable answer. Together, we have brought into this existence ten marvelous children, and our family has now expanded to thirty-two. Today, when I look into my wife’s eyes and contemplate the goodness of God in giving her to me, I testify that eternal marriage and family matter.

My Answer

I end as I began. Two decades ago I had a question. I struggled for an answer that for some reason was postponed. I did my due-diligence for a period of time, but finally had to decide whether I was going to let it bother me or build me. I handed it off to God and decided that it didn’t matter. I would focus instead on what I knew to be true: priesthood, redemption, testimony and eternal marriage and family. I would not risk absolutes for questions.

Then one day, twenty years later, as I was minding my own business, the answer came. It was a soft communication, wholly unremarkable. But there it was just the same. Suddenly, everything clicked. I paused for a moment, smiled, and said, “Oh, I never would have thought.” It was nice to finally have my answer, but it really didn’t matter much-not in comparison to what really matters.

The Power of God

Falling off the Roof on Halloween Night

Some years ago, my son, Gavon and his friends, then teenagers, had tired of trick or treating. One of the boys was the son of my friend, Mike. His roof could be easily climbed and often was. It required little effort for a nimble 16-year-old boy to mount the fence, swing up a leg up and roll onto the roof.

Looking for more excitement that boring Halloween night, the boys had climbed to the peak of Mike’s roof and pondered the possibilities. Someone suggested that they rig a microphone to scare passing trick or treaters. There were no dissenters. The prank played out like this: target a victim below, scream into the microphone, and run to another side of the roof to hide. Their fun time went on for a long time.

The boys had just frightened another unsuspecting child and had raced to the far, dark side of the roof, when suddenly Gavon disappeared. His friends heard a hard thump twelve feet below. When I received a phone call from Mike’s dad, Ted, he only could say, “Gavon’s been hurt. It’s pretty bad.”

I arrived just as an ambulance was pulling up. My son was lying on his back, unconscious and groaning. When the paramedics shined a flashlight on him, I saw blood seeping from his ears. “He fell directly onto his head and right shoulder,” one of them said. I tried to reach out for him but was prevented. “He may have injured his neck or back,” they said.

Ted, anticipating my needing a friend, said, “I’ll go with you to the Emergency Room.”

At the hospital, doctors cut away Gavon’s shirt and began to work on him. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight. He was still bleeding from his ears. His face was swelling. His right collarbone had a large bump that appeared to be trying to protrude through the skin. I was told that it was broken badly.

“Does the bleeding from the ears mean head injury?” I asked.

“It’s the sign of concussion. It doesn’t look good.”

“What about his neck and back?”

“We’ve ordered a CAT scan.”

When the doctors left the room, I said to Ted, “I’m so afraid for my son. Will you help me give him a priesthood blessing?”

Ted is a man of great faith. Over the years he and I had been each other’s Home Teachers. We had given many blessings together. In other trying situations, I had seen him take his problems to the Lord with the perfect assurance that he would be heard and answered. On occasion, I had knelt with him and heard him pour out his heart in behalf of someone in need. This was to be another of those times. We stood on either side of my son’s bed and pled for a miracle of healing. Then we laid our hands on my son’s head and pronounced the blessing. When we finished, the doctors took Gavon to Radiology.

During that long night while we watched Gavon’s unconscious body being scanned, we talked of God, faith and past miracles. I didn’t know what would happen to my boy. Periodically I called home to discuss the situation with my wife, who was tending our little children. We tried to prepare ourselves for whatever news might come. Finally, a doctor came from a room and approached Ted and me with a handful of x-rays. His speech was clinical. He pointed out bones, growth plates and the obvious concussion.

Has the bleeding from the ears stopped?” I asked. “Is there any brain damage?”

“The bleeding has stopped and there is no apparent brain damage.”

“What about breaks? His back, his neck?”         

“No breaks.”

“Not even his collar bone?” I asked in astonishment.

“Nothing. He will probably have a headache for a few days.”

Gavon woke up 24 hours later with the predicted headache, not remembering anything expect standing on the edge of the dark roof. The bruising and swelling was gone within the week. Within a few days, he was back playing carefully with his friends.

The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him (Nahum 1:7)

The Knowledge of God

No Food in the House

In a particularly difficult financial time, I sought God for help. I suppose that I am like other people whose prayers are offered with more feeling in times of urgent need. I remember feeling ashamed that I had not previously put more effort into my relationship with God when money had been plentiful. Still, believing that such petitioning could help, I arose one morning and began to plead for help.

The answer came in a strange way. A thought entered my mind: “Your friend Paul (name changed) has no food in his house. Go and take him some money.”

“But I have so little,” I said aloud. Then, considering to whom I was talking, I asked, “How much?”

“One hundred dollars.”

I felt anxiety shoot through me. One hundred dollars was all I had in the bank! I searched myself hoping that I had made the whole thing up. I tried to pray again but felt only silence. Then, through the quiet I perceived a message. It seemed to say, Will you trust me or not?

Paul was a good man who had recently lost his income source and was struggling through very difficult financial times. No effort of his had seemed to be able to stop the rapid decline of his assets and reserves.

I dressed, drove to the bank, withdrew one hundred dollars and headed to Paul’s house. When I stuffed the money into his hand, he couldn’t hold back the tears. He said, “My wife and I totally ran out of food last night. We have been up since four o’clock this morning praying for a miracle.”

I never missed the one hundred dollars. One thing after another fell into place to sustain my family. But no miracle was as great as the one that occurred inside me when I discovered that God truly loves his children and often uses other people to prove it.

… let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great…(2 Sam. 24:14).

The Love of God

Welcome Home

Two months after my daughter, Katie, and her husband, Jason, were married, Jason was diagnosed with Crohns Disease. In an emergency operation, eighteen inches of his intestine were removed. From that point forward, Crohns became a third member of their marriage and the hospital became their second home.

Home. That word became foreign to them. During their first years of marriage, strangling medical debt dictated their residences and moves. Now they had a baby girl. More poor health and meager finances forced them to move once again, this time in with family. The three of them crowded into two tiny bedrooms that Jason’s parents graciously provided in their house.

Later, when they thought that the Crohns was in remission, they decided that education was their only hope for normalcy. So they moved-again. This time to be students. Their excitement to finally be on their own was short-lived, however. Too soon, they discovered that the college program that they wanted required unethical practices of its students in exchange for grades. Jason and Katie had a choice to make: live their values or to leave school. They packed up and left.

When they returned to Jason’s parents’ home and the two cramped bedrooms, they felt defeated. Then Jason’s Crohns took a frightening and deep dive. Suddenly they had to face the difficult realization that his current health status would not allow him to maintain a full-time job. Katie would need to become the primary breadwinner and their prospects for affording a place of their own now seemed worse than ever. And, of course, the medical debts kept mounting.

They wanted to be self-sufficient; they wanted to be an independent family. They did not want to be reliant upon other people. So they prayed. They knew that no one could get them through this challenge except Heavenly Father.

Slowly, things began to change. Within a short period of time they received a government grant and an unexpectedly large tax return. Suddenly they could pay off their medical debts! Then Katie received a job offer; then a few months later a better one; and then a few months later a better one. But their living situation had not improved-two cramped bedrooms in their parent’s house.

One night Katie prayed again. She didn’t want to be ungrateful. She knew that one thing after another had been working out. She knew where their blessings were coming from. She hoped she wouldn’t be asking amiss.

For some time she had longed for and pictured in her mind a sweet little apartment that her family could live in-a modest place with some elbowroom, a yard with green grass, a safe neighborhood, a nice ward and a friend for her little girl…and it had to fit in their slender budget. By scrimping they might be able to come up with $650 a month for her dream place.

Unlikely. Impossible. These words had kept her from offering the prayer before. But this night she yearned for change, and she knew that she could not achieve it on my own. She humbly took her request to Heavenly Father. She imagined that it was too much to ask. But she asked anyway.

The next day, Lindsay, her sister called. Lindsay’s brother- and sister-in-law were just finishing building a new home, she said. It had a large, basement apartment. It had a huge green yard. It was in a nice part of town, and the ward was wonderful. A little girl, the same age as our daughter, lived next door. They were willing to rent the apartment for only $650 a month!

Suddenly what Katie had thought could never change changed. What she had imagined impossible was possible. When she first walked into her “dream apartment,” she said, she felt as though Someone had already been there. It was as though Someone had placed a little note on the door saying, Welcome home.

…the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth (Ex. 34:6).

May ever be aware of our powerful, loving Father, who is ever aware of our needs and who showers us with his gifts.

The Law of Consecration is the very core of the gospel, and it permeates every gospel principle. This highest law defines a Zion person. Although programs of consecration have come and gone, the template of consecration remains the same. Consequently, consecration is current; it is now. Only by living this law can we hope to obtain an inheritance in the celestial kingdom.

What is Consecration?

To consecrate something is to sanctify, purify and set it apart for a sacred use, to make it holy, to dedicate it solemnly to a special service, or to give it religious sanction as with an oath or a vow. When we make the covenant of consecration, we agree to consecrate our lives, including everything that we have, will have, are or will be. According to President Kimball, we consecrate “our time, talents and means to care for those in need-whether spiritually or temporally-and in building the Lord’s kingdom.”

Hugh Nibley asks, “And how much is one able to give? Exactly as much as the Lord has given him-all that which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he will bless you.” Lived properly, the covenant of consecration paves the way and lays the foundation for the establishment for Zion in a righteous person’s life.

A Brief History of Consecration

The first recorded revelation concerning consecration was April 7, 1829, when the Lord instructed Joseph Smith to “seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion.” This was no small task. Zion is the celestial order of things, for both individuals and societies. Some descriptions of consecrated Zion people include: their belief that all things belong to God and that they are stewards; their willingness to be unified by esteeming other people as themselves; their retaining and exercising their free agency; their willingness to set aside selfishness and become equal with all the saints of God, according to their wants, needs and family situations by consecrating their “time, talents, strength, properties, and monies”; and their being accountable to the Lord for the discharge of their covenant and stewardships.

Anciently, Enoch managed to establish the ideal of Zion among his people, who later joined to create Zion, the city. These people exercised faith in Jesus Christ, repented of their sins, embraced the fullness of the New and Everlasting Covenant, and thereby became “of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” The vehicle that made this condition possible, and that will make it possible in the latter-days, was the Law of Consecration.

At the beginning of 1831, “the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith in Fayette, New York, that anciently he had taken the Zion of Enoch to himself and then commanded him to go to Ohio to receive the law [the law of Zion].” A month later, February 9, 1831, the Lord revealed to the Prophet “the law,” or the law of Zion, that which the Prophet specified as “embracing the law of the Church.” This law became known as Section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants, and in it the Lord revealed the cornerstones of the Law of Consecration.

D&C 42-The Cornerstones of Consecration

The “Law of the Church,” Section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants, lists four cornerstones of the Law of Consecration:

• First, mutual assistance–the Lord expects his disciples to sustain and help one another.
• Second, proper use of priesthood–the priesthood is to be used to benefit those who are physically and spiritually ill or in need.
• Third, the need for faith-according to God’s will, a person can be healed [physically, emotionally and spiritually] by the power of the priesthood if that individual has faith in Jesus Christ and if he is “not appointed unto death,” information that gives confidence to the person as he realizes that the Lord has given him time to work out his exaltation.
• Fourth, reciprocal love–the Lord expects his disciples to love one another and to become one.

The Law We Must Live to Achieve the Celestial Kingdom

President Ezra Taft Benson said, “The law of consecration is a law for an inheritance in the celestial kingdom. God, the Eternal Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and all holy beings abide by this law. It is an eternal law.” People whose lives are consecrated to the Lord “set their hearts on righteousness and having actually put first in their lives the things of God’s kingdom.”

The Church Welfare Plan describes a consecrated person as one who does not seek for worldly riches; who esteems his brother as himself; who, through tithes and offerings, helps to build up the Kingdom of God by caring for the temporal needs of those General Authorities whom God has called into full-time service; who makes his worldly goods available, over and above his family’s necessities, for the Lord’s work; and who, with his time, talents and means, takes care of the temporally and spiritually poor. Quoting the Church Welfare Plan, Bruce R. McConkie wrote,

“The practice of the law of consecration is inextricably intertwined with the development of the attributes of godliness in this life and the attainment of eternal life in the world to come. ‘The law pertaining to material aid is so formulated that the carrying of it out necessitates practices calculated to root out human traits not in harmony with requirements for living in the celestial kingdom and replacing those inharmonious traits with the virtues and character essential to life in that abode.’ (Bowen, The Church Welfare Plan, p. 13).”

Then quoting a supporting scripture, Elder McConkie added, “For if you will that I give you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you.”

Consecration’s Foundational Principles

Elsewhere in the scriptures, we learn that the Law of Consecration is built on the foundational principles of agency, stewardship, accountability and labor.

• Agency. An agent is someone who has the power and authority to act. Therefore, agents have agency, which is the ability to “act for themselves,” or to the ability to act for himself with respect to a given responsibility or obligation. Agents have the capacity to be accountable for their actions. Whereas freedom is the power and privilege to exercise our will and act upon it, agency is the power, independence of mind and individual will to choose in the first place.

Elder McConkie wrote: “Four great principles must be in force if there is to be agency: 1. Laws must exist, laws ordained by an Omnipotent power, laws which can be obeyed or disobeyed; 2. Opposites must exist–good and evil, virtue and vice, right and wrong–that is, there must be an opposition, one force pulling one way and another pulling the other; 3. A knowledge of good and evil must be had by those who are to enjoy the agency, that is, they must know the difference between the opposites; and 4. An unfettered power of choice must prevail.”

Moral agency describes our ability to act upon and be accountable for spiritual matters. Zion people exercise their God-given agency to choose to make and keep the New and Everlasting Covenant (the Covenant), and to reject the enticements of Babylon. And choose we must. Posing the choice between Zion and Babylon, Elijah asked, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal [Babylon], then follow him.” Being lukewarm on the issue is not acceptable: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

That these opposites (hot and cold) exist makes agency possible: “And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet.” Therefore, we are free to choose our destiny: Zion, to our salvation, or Babylon, to our condemnation. “Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light.”

Having chosen Zion and thus having overcome Babylon, Zion people enjoy the highest degree of moral agency and its resulting freedom. Agency and freedom flourish in Zion: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. “And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon….” Conversely, agency and freedom decrease in Babylon: “And the whole world [Babylon] lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin.” Choosing Babylon results in fewer choices and less freedom to exercise agency, while choosing Zion results in limitless choices and unequalled freedom to exercise agency.

• Stewardship. When a person exercises his agency to live the Covenant, he makes a conscious choice to become a steward of the Lord’s property. His approach to ownership is “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof….” Elder Bruce R. McConkie said, “Underlying this principle of stewardship is the eternal gospel truth that all things belong to the Lord. ‘I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine …. Behold, all these properties are mine, … And if the properties are mine, then ye are stewards; otherwise ye are no stewards.’ (D&C 104:14, 55-56).”

We are expressly forbidden to hoard property or claim it as our own: “I command thee that thou shalt not covet thine own property….” Therefore, a Zion person’s claim to his property is subordinate to the Lord’s claim. As Martin Harris learned, property must be consecrated for the building up of the Kingdom of God and the establishment of Zion, which provides that no poor should exist among us. Ultimately we will be held accountable for the discharge of our stewardship.

A Zion person’s stewardship, sometimes referred to as “portion,” or “inheritance,” is to be used to support his own family, and then “conveying back to the Lord’s storehouse any surplus which accrued [for the poor]. (D&C 42:33-34, 55; 70:7-10).” Elder McConkie added, “It is by the wise use of one’s stewardship that eternal life is won.” Zion people do not take their covenant of stewardship lightly; they know that everything depends on their faithfulness in this responsibility: “And whoso is found a faithful, a just, and a wise steward shall enter into the joy of his Lord, and shall inherit eternal life.”

• Accountability. The Lord said, “…every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property….” Upon the principle of moral agency, stewards are free to manage their stewardships, but they are not free from being accountable to the Lord: “…it is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity. For he who is faithful and wise in time is accounted worthy to inherit the mansions prepared for him of my Father.” Clearly, we will one day stand before God to give an accounting of our deeds, which will include the management of our stewardship. Our performance will determine the trusts and stewardships given to us in eternity.

Zion people are under covenant to account for their earthly stewardships to the Lord’s servant, the bishop: “Verily I say unto you, the elders of the church in this part of my vineyard shall render an account of their stewardship unto the bishop, who shall be appointed of me in this part of my vineyard. These things shall be had on record, to be handed over unto the bishop in Zion.” For this reason, we report to the bishop each year regarding our tithes and offerings, and we account to him during our temple recommend interview. Elder David A. Bednar said that we account to God every night in prayer.

• Labor. Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote, “Work is the great basic principle which makes all things possible both in time and in eternity. Men, spirits, angels, and Gods use their physical and mental powers in work.” Work, like other principles, exists in degrees ranging from telestial to celestial. Adam was commanded to work to support his family, which is a celestial endeavor, but he was not commanded to set his sights on empire building, plundering, extorting, leveraging, competing, augmenting his balance sheet or amassing personal wealth on the backs of the poor, all of which are telestial. Adam worked to create the first Zion upon the earth: Adam-ondi-Ahman. There he labored to sustain his immediate family and to bless the lives of others.

Likewise, Enoch worked to establish Zion, as did Melchizedek and Nephi: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands.” They worked together for the benefit of all. They labored to establish righteousness. They worked in unity to raise crops, smelt ore to create weapons for defense, and fashion objects of beauty. Together, they built buildings and a temple. Because of their celestial level of labor they were blessed with prosperity and familial strength: “And it came to pass that we began to prosper exceedingly, and to multiply in the land.”

Things began to fall apart when the Nephites became selfish and began to work on a telestial level. Jacob chastised them for searching “for gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores” for the purpose of obtaining riches “more abundantly than that of your brethren,” causing the errant one to be “lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and …suppose that ye are better than they.” This kind of labor is not justified in Zion; it is condemned. President Kimball said, “As I understand these matters, Zion can be established only by those who are pure in heart, and who labor for Zion, for the ‘laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money [riches] they shall perish’ (2 Ne. 26:30).2 Ne. 26:31).”

Jacob taught the celestial law of labor and its underlying motivation: “Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you. But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good–to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.” Clearly, we must work, but what we work for determines if the work is telestial or celestial.

Conversely, “idleness has no place [in Zion],” said President Benson, “and greed, selfishness, and covetousness are condemned. [Zion] may therefore operate only with a righteous people.”

Conclusion

The Law of Consecration is a subject as glorious as its Founder. It is the law of the Celestial Kingdom revealed to us in this telestial setting for our salvation and exaltation. By this law the Kingdom of God prepares the way for the establishment of Zion as a holy community and Zion as individual people. We must learn all we can about this law then live it, otherwise we cannot expect to obtain an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom. The foundational principles and cornerstones of Consecration are equality, unity, mutual assistance, proper use of the priesthood, faith, reciprocal love (charity), agency, stewardship, accountability and labor. This is the law by which hearts are purified, and by which we are ushered into the presence of God. Only upon the Law of consecration can we become one in our marriages, families, wards, stakes, the Church, and one with the Father and the Son.

Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, edited by Edward L. Kimball, p.366

Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion, p.427

D&C 6:6

See D&C 105:5

See D&C 38:17; 104:11-14

See D&C 38:24-27; 51:3, 9; 70:14; 78:6; 82:17

See D&C 104:17

See D&C 51:3

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, “Consecration,” p.157

See D&C 72:3; 104:13-18

Moses 7:18

Encyclopedia of Mormonism, “Consecration,” p.312

D&C 42 introduction

List adapted from Clark V. Johnson, Sperry Symposium 1989, “The Law of Consecration: The Covenant That Requires All and Gives Everything”

Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson , p.121

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, “Consecration,” p.157

See Albert E. Bowen, The Church Welfare Plan, p.6

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, “Consecration,” p.157

D&C 78:7

See American Heritage Dictionary, “Agent”

2 Nephi 2:26

See D&C 29:35

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., “Agency,” p.26

See D&C 29:35

1 Kings 18:21, insertion added

Revelation 3:15-16

D&C 29:39

D&C 93:31

John 8:36

2 Nephi 2:26

D&C 84:49-50

Psalms 24:1

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., “Stewardships,” p.767

D&C 19:26

See D&C 72:3-4; 51:19; Luke 16:2; 19:17; Matthew 25:14-30; D&C 82:3, 11; 78:22

D&C 51:4

D&C 51:4; 57:15

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., “Stewardships,” p.767

D&C 51:19

D&C 42:32

D&C 72:3-4

D&C 72:5-6

See David A. Bednar, “Pray Always,” Ensign, November 2008

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., “Work,” p.847

Genesis 3:19

2 Nephi 5:17

See 2 Ne 5:10-16

Jacob 2:12-14

Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.363

Jacob 2:17-19

Ezra Taft Benson, “A Vision and a Hope for the Youth of Zion,” Devotional Speeches of the Year [Provo, Utah: BYU, 1978], p. 74.