Eldred G. Smith

 Recently I read an article about Eldred G. Smith who celebrated his 105th birthday.  He is an emeritus General Authority of the church at this point but served as the last Patriarch for the whole church.  After he was emeritus the Church decided not to have Patriarchs for the whole church but to have the ones assigned to Stakes throughout the world only.  If you would like to read the article I enjoyed click here.
 

This is more how I remember him looking.

The article reminded me of when I was 17 years old.  I had not yet had my patriarchal blessing and I was graduated from High School and was accepted to BYU.  My parents wanted me to have my Patriarchal Blessing before I left home so we made an appointment with the Stake Patriarch just a couple days before I left for school.  That appointment ended up getting cancelled because the Patriarch's wife got seriously ill and consequently I was unable to get my blessing.  Somehow we learned that if we presented ourselves to the Church office building in Salt Lake with my Patriarchal blessing recommend signed by my Bishop that the Church Patriarch may be able to give us the blessing.  So we did that.

Up to that point in my life I had been known as a very dependable and pretty serious young man.  I had avoided the troubles that many of my peers had gotten into and had kept my focus on doing what was right, working at jobs where I showed my dependability and being friends with lots of adults as well as youth including many of my teachers along the way, and had been preparing myself to serve a mission immediately when I was 19.  My plan was to put in my paperwork in advance of my birthday so I could be on my way when I turned 19.

Then the day arrived that we presented ourselves at the Church Office Building and Eldred G. Smith was able to provide the Patriarchal Blessing.  We talked for a few minutes and then he gave the blessing.  Aside from some important things that were said in the blessing, there was something he said after the blessing that changed my life and drastically affected my long term future.

After the blessing was completed and we were talking together he said that I might want to wait a little while to go on my mission "so you can mature" a little more.  That struck me as so strange because everyone thought I was so mature already.  But as time went by I began to feel that was the right thing to do.  So rather than going on my mission as soon as I turned 19 as planned, I went several months later when I was close to 20 years old.  The reason for that didn't make itself known until about three years later.

While being engaged to Lisa to get married we must have realized that if I had gone on my mission when I originally intended, then she and I would not have met.  Because I went a few months later things worked out just right so we met and had plenty of time to work together in the mission field, so that when it was time for me to come home, and she still had several months left of her mission, the thought occurred to me to wait and marry her when she came home.

It is funny how things work out.  But I learned that when a man of God tells you something--as a minimum you should give it great consideration and see if God doesn't lead you to do what has been recommended.  It might change your life in ways you couldn't even guess. I'm grateful to Eldred G. Smith for giving that advice from the Lord that I may not have listened to coming from anyone else.

Never Leave Him

[Note: Today's post comes in the words of Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve from November 2010 Ensign p39-42]

"The road of discipleship is not for the spiritually faint of heart.

As we follow the Savior, without question there will be challenges that confront us.  Approached with faith, these refining experiences bring a deeper conversion of the Savior's reality.  Approached in a worldly way, these same experiences cloud our view and weaken our resolve.

 Offense comes in many costumes and continually finds its way onstage.  People we believe in disappoint us.  We have unanticipated difficulties.  Our life doesn't turn out exactly the way we were expecting.  We make mistakes, feel unworthy, and worry about being forgiven...It could be a hundred things.

Paul admonished, :God hath not given us the spirit of fear;...Be not...ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. (2 Timothy 1:7-8)

I promise you, as you choose not to be offended or ashamed, you will feel His love and approval.  you will know that you are becoming more like Him.

Will we understand everything?  Of course not.  We will put some issues on the shelf to be understood at a later time.

Will everything be fair? It will not.  We will accept some things we cannot fix and forgive others when it hurts.

Will we feel separated on occasion from those around us? Absolutely.

I love these words from a favorite hymn:
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, I'll never, no never

I'll never, no never, no never forsake! (How firm a foundation #85)

Lord, to whom shall we go? though hast the words of eternal life....We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. (John 6:68-69)"

Manly Man Training #11: Ask Yourself

Often, we as men, go about our daily lives just moving forward.  We don't ask a lot of questions, we don't second guess a lot, we just 'keep on moving on'.  We do tend to get side tracked or at least allow our appetites and passions to interrupt our purpose and goals.  Meals tend to be attended, electronic gadgets tend to be inspected and all the other usual suspects.  Unfortunately one thing that we don't often do is that we do not ask ourselves questions very often.  Certainly we rarely ask ourselves what we feel about things.  We probably do take the time to compare where we are at with our goals from time to time.  Our education goals or our career goals and hopefully we think about our eternal goals, but maybe not as much as we should. 

Maybe one of the corner stones should be to ask our self "What kind of man do I want to be?"  Ideally we think beyond the wants of this world but more to the hopes of the next world. So if you haven't thought about it in a while here is a chance to consider:  What kind of man do you want to be?

Certainly a Manly Man, that goes without saying since you are reading this.  But when you consider and determine the type of man you want to be, think about how that differs from the man you currently are.  What changes do you need to make and which ones are you willing to begin to make now?

It is entirely possible that you do not know the way to become the man you wish to be.  So how do you find out?
1. The first step would be to tell Heavenly father your conclusion and let him know what type of man you want to be.  He may offer some additional nudging that will guide you further.
2. When you feel His approval for the direction you are going ask Him to teach, guide and empower you to become that man. 
3.  Then keep your eyes open for the different ways that the Lord will instruct you.  You will begin to see parts of Sacrament meeting talks that have help and advice for you.  You will begin to notice that lessons are dealing with things that seem directed directly at your needs.  You will begin to see friends and family bringing up things that will help in your quest to be a better man.  The Lord will very often work through others to give you the help and encouragement you need, especially after you ask for it.  It is important that while we are making these efforts to improve that we don't miss any church meetings, or conference if possible.  We need to be in the right places to get the help that the Lord is offering.  He will be inspiring folks to give what is needed and if you aren't there to hear it then it was you not the Lord that fell through.  
4.  Once in a while take a moment to notice the changes that have occurred.  Sometimes if we don't do this simple and short step then we tend to think that nothing much has changed. 
5.  Finally note and implement the helps that come.  If you can remember them without writing them down then by all means write them down.  Manly men can write without losing their strength.  If you need notes to help you remember or help them sink into your heart and soul then do it.  If you need to listen to it fifty times if that is what it takes, do it!  If you need to make it part of your monthly fast then do it. 

Another question that sometimes helps and that we men are sometimes weak in is thinking about what others think of you and what will they remember about you.  Do you think about what others think of you very often?  As men we often tend to go by the mantra 'do what needs to be done and don't worry about what people think of you'.  That mantra helps us keep going despite naysayers and that has its place.  However, it is important that we care about what people think, especially when we respect their opinion.  Sometimes considering what others think will help keep us out of trouble and away from poor decisions.  It might help us focus some of our decisions as well by not just getting to the right goal but being able to set a better example while we are doing so. 

Steven Covey has advocated the idea of contemplating our funeral and while thinking about it consider having someone speak from our professional life, our church associations and our friends.  What would these people say about us, how will we be remembered? 

Finally, what kind of a Priesthood legacy are you leaving?  Are you a Priesthood holder in name only?  What is a Priesthood legacy you might ask?  What have you done to magnify your Priesthood?  Do you make yourself available to give blessings when asked willingly without rushing and do you encourage them to ask again as needed?  Do you accept and sometimes volunteer for opportunities to do Priesthood responsibilities including home teaching?  Do you support your leaders and friends in word and actions in addition to raising the right hand when they are sustained to callings in the ward?  Is it evident that you care about what you are doing or do you act bored and disinterested.  When you are at church are you alert and participating or unresponsive and withdrawn?

There is much to consider when we start thinking about what type of man ought we to be.  Of course you well recognize the reference from the words I chose and realize that we are to be like the Master (3Nephi 27:27).  Let's start working on it now.  And if we are already having some success in that area lets keep moving forward on that great and worthy quest of becoming.

Here's a great quote by Elder Richard G. Scott that goes well with what I've been trying to say: 

"I have come to know that there are currents of divine influence in our life that will lead each of us along the individual plan the Lord would have us follow while on earth.  They are identified through the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.  Seek through the Spirit to Identify that plan and carefully follow the direction the Lord will provide.  It will come through answers to prayers and pondering on the counsel of others who are worthy.  Align yourself with it.  Choose willingly, to exercise your agency to follow it.  Do not be overcome by concentrating solely on today, its challenges, difficulties, and opportunities.  These things are the relatively insignificant surface winds and waves of today.  Such preoccupations must not totally capture your interest and attention so as to consume your life."

My favorite blessing

I was in church the other day and a young woman got up to bear her testimony.  In the process of doing that she declared that her "favorite blessing" was her children.  Naturally I started thinking about what my favorite blessing was.

I have heard people including authorities talk about the greatest blessing that we have from Heavenly Father.  Needless to say there is no unanimity between everyone.  Some people say that the greatest blessing is our life.  Others say that the greatest blessing is our ability to choose what to do with our life--otherwise known as agency.  Some say the ability to reproduce, or the ability to love is our greatest blessing.  Some even take the opinion that the fullness of the gospel, the priesthood, the temple (pick one) is our greatest blessing.  There are so many 'greatest blessings' that it is hard to choose.  (Thank you very much I'll just accept them all!)
But I like how this Sister bypassed all that and told what her favorite blessing was.  Her choice for favorite was her children of which she had several.  I've thought about myself and there are lots of things I like, including computers and blogging but in reality they clearly are not my favorite nor the greatest blessing we have.  Immediately I thought of people and wondered which was my favorite blessing but that almost seems to be a popularity contest until I considered which blessing is indispensable. 

What person or thing do I have that is indispensable?  If you choose a person the time could come where they will be dead and then you'll see how indispensable they really are.  But if we consider death and the inevitable separation during a period of time when they are gone and we are not (or vice verse).  It would appear that no one is indispensable except Christ.  Consequently my favorite blessing doesn't have to be indispensable in the short run but everything that isn't eternal certainly pales in both categories of being my favorite blessing as well as the greatest blessing. 

After thinking about it for a couple weeks I decided that my favorite blessing is my wife!  And my opinion on the greatest blessing is leaning toward the new and everlasting covenant of eternal marriage.  Could I do without my wife?  Maybe in the short run but not through eternity.  I think the interesting question is what is her favorite blessing and her opinion about the greatest blessing?  Hmm.   I guess I better work on becoming her favorite blessing!