Monday, September 5, 2011

Love is Spoken here

So lately I've been kind of worried about my sister, I won't go into specifics, but I care a lot about her and decided to fast for her last fast sunday (yesterday).

About an hour after I had broken my fast, I got a text from her asking for a blessing. It seemed like the answer to a prayer. I knew what I wanted to say, but I realized that what I wanted to say might not have been what the Lord wanted for her, so I started praying for an open heart and also for forgiveness for my imperfections (I've realized that sincerely showing the Lord that you're willing to repent makes you a better conduit for the spirit during a blessing). I also got dressed up in my Sunday clothes for the blessing (I usually don't get dressed up for blessings, but I knew this had to be something special and I wanted to show the Lord I understood that).

Initially, I was going to go alone, but I had the feeling I should invite my brother-in-law to assist. And then my little brother. My little brother didn't pick up, but I let my little sister know who else was going to be there. She called my older sister and brother-in-law and we went to my older sister's house for the blessing. Something really cool was my little brother was home when we were picking my little sister up and he decided to come when we invited him to come (he lives in the same complex as my sister).

So I gave my sister the blessing per her request with my brother and brother-in-law assisting. The counsel I was inspired to give her definitely wasn't my own and I felt privileged to give the blessing and also comforted that my fasting on my sister's behalf was answered. I knew it wasn't a coincidence she came to me after I had been fasting for her. Then I asked my brother-in-law to give me a blessing, my brother asked me for one and my brother-in-law asked for one. The counsel we were giving each other was amazing. My brother in law knew exactly what to say despite knowing little of what I was dealing with. I also realized my little brother has a special gift when he gave my brother-in-law his blessing. I realized that he could SEE in his mind's eye what he was supposed to say as opposed how I get my inspiration: a voice in my head.

So my sister asked for a blessing from my little brother. That hurt my self-esteem just a bit, I was thinking was what I did not good enough? Well when we were about to start, my brother stopped and said "I need to pray first." So he did, we waited 5-10 minutes for him to finish and he came back. It was really cool when he gave the blessing because his blessing EXPOUNDED on mine. It made me think back to the scriptures where it talks about the importance of two witnesses in establishing the word of the Lord. That's why I never went solo as a missionary. I didn't feel dwarfed and it was cool because I could tell my brother wasn't trying to just saying something to agree with me, what he was getting was inspiration and didn't come from just listening to what I said and saying something similar, it was real inspiration building on what I said.

The most awesome part was how strong the spirit was after we were done giving blessings, it was like you could cut it with a knife it felt so thick. My older sister took that opportunity to bear her testimony to us of the scriptures and their importance. I know there's a lot of darkness in this world, but I knew when I was standing there in that moment that the Devil and forces of darkness had no place in that home and that it felt like a Zion, a place of refuge from the dark.

It's times like this that bolster my testimony in the restored Gospel and the priesthood that was brought back with it. Because it's times like this that show me the Melchizedek priesthood my Dad gave me when I was 21 is something real and that the source he got it from is real (a lineage going back to to Jesus Christ himself going through the ancient apostles and Joseph Smith). I know the Lord hears our prayers and loves us. I bear this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

In case you aren't LDS and made it this far, I'd like you to know the title of this blog post comes from the song I learned as a child called "Love is spoken here." There's a part where the father is singer and he says "Mine is a home where every hour is blessed by the strength of Priesthood power..." And that's what that night reminded me of so I decided to use that as the title of this post.

1 comment:

  1. Wow Eric! I felt the spirit reading this even though I was there. Thanks so much for posting this.

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