The Great ones will be lost no more

Sometimes it seems that we lose people in their prime.  I don't mean physical prime but rather spiritual prime.  I am thinking of some discussions my mother and I have had over the years.  She is in her 80's now and she sometimes comments that it is good that people get old and less attractive by the worlds standards, less able to do a variety of things due to physical decay and less able to do some things mentally.  She says that if that were not the case that the young people would never have the opportunity to come into their own and to be required to be responsible and learn.  It might be easy for them to be lazy and not accept the growth opportunities that they need just as their elders have needed them in their own day. 

I get the feeling that my mother knows that to be correct but that she still misses some things from her youth.  I am thirty years behind my mother but am beginning to see the changes that remind me of days gone by with a pleasant smile. 

Of course there are advantages to being old particularly if we gain in understanding and spirituality.  This great opportunity to see patterns and faith fulfilled in our own memories is very powerful and helps us accept this great world as an opportunity to grow with tests along the way to measure our growth and encourage us in the direction our God would have us go. 

Then I think of my Mom & Dad, Mother-in-law and Father-in-law who have been great examples in their lives and have lead their families to the Savior and many other people as well.  They have done great service and held leadership callings that have influenced people for good throughout their lives.  Then I see that they are struggling now and use their well developed faith to get them through these times of trials due to age and otherwise.  I imagine what the world will be like without them to be living examples to me and others and recognize that it will be my turn to be the same to my family, friends and others too.  In a way it is a bit frightful to consider replacing them to some degree.  But having seen their great example I often feel confident that I can follow them and then go through the new twists and turns with the faith they have exemplified and I have gained of my own thanks to their great example. 

But I look forward to the millennium when we will not lose the great people in our lives through death.  Instead we will be able to work with them (and work I fully expect it will be) to prepare the world for the last battle with Satan and for the end.  How wonderful it will be to stand beside them in their prime and to contribute with them to the great plan of Happiness as it moves forward for a thousand years.  I look forward to that time where we will not lose our great ones but instead will stand side by side in the great work of the Lord.  Where those fully developed great ones of the Lord will once again be with us to help us and work with us.  We will be side by side as equals but with different talents and abilities.  What a day that will be!

I'll let the hope of that day comfort me through the difficult times of their lost abilities and eventually loss of life.  Then in their footsteps I will carry on and be what they have taught me to be.  Then finally we will be together as equals, having learned our lessons on the training planet of earth, to prepare than fight for our Lord in His upcoming victories.

Thinking of you Dad (Died 1995), Mom (80+ years old), Dad (in a coma 2+ months) and Mom (Faithful through the loss of almost all by the worlds standards but certainly not by the Lord's standard).  Love your hopefully ever faithful son -- Dallas