Wherein Quiet Song shares Tender Mercies of the Lord and Pearls of Great Price.As I have previously posted, I have the opportunity to teach at Church. And, recently I had the opportunity to teach Malachi 4:6: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come to smite the earth with a curse.
This engendered (no pun intended) a lively discussion on temple work and geneaology and the work of the temples in the millenium.
Yes, it is true we have lively, out of the box discussions in the class derived from the fabulous questions and lesson plans in the correlated church curriculum. Quiet Song simply does not understand the criticisms against these materials, but like everything else you get out of a resource what you put into it. Her Bishop has given her a nice compliment about being able to teach people powerfully while not presenting the gospel in a series of neat little boxes which she is not entirely comfortable with receiving said compliment, but ok then its true, she has never lived in the series of neat little boxes so why wouldn't she teach the same way???I cannot recall exactly what I said, but I revealed that there were reasons I could not be sealed to my parents and it looked like there was a pretty good chance if I was going to the Celestial Kingdom it would be alone or nearly alone. There are a number of Bona Fide scriptorians in my class and one of them raised his hand and stated that as members that we often forget the other part of that verse, which is that the hearts of the fathers will be turned to the children. As he elaborated, I began to understand my place a little more and felt a little less alone. As I have subsequently cogitated on the issue, I have concluded that there is probably someone who cares for me enough back up the family tree that when the time comes I can be sealed to them. Because truth be told we know some of us and our loved ones are not going to make it to the highest glory.
For a person like me, this sad reality has been crystal clear since I was very young. At 12 or 13 I was very deeply moved to inquire of heavenly father about what happens to a family when a family member commits a terrible crime which is a sin, and I received a wonderful warm blessing of the spirit assuring me that all would be well. This was a simple moment and I have learned much more intellectually and spiritually since then.
I also couldn't help pondering a story from DH's family. His grandmother remarried as a widow with many young children and then went on to have even more children with the second husband. One of the granddaughters from husband number one told the grandmother she felt bad because she wasn't really a part of second husband's extended family. The grandmother told her, "Don't Worry You are Kin." When the granddaughter and I were looking over the extended geneaologies of these Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky families, she said she finally understood what her grandmother meant. While there wasn't any evidence of first cousin marrying that were many second and third cousin marriages and brother and sister in law connections between the families. They were very tightly knit together by extended family and especially in law relationships.
This story does not quite end here, because one of our sister scriptorians got up last Sunday to bear her testimony about the family we have within our Ward and how we are bound together that way, and, in her case, because of her children being sealed to members of other families in our ward, which also reminded me that there are blessings that may someday flow from below in the family tree which turned my (a mother's) heart to my children. For me, these incidents were quite a blessing.
Even more remarkable, in my place in the greater human family outside of the church, I feel doubly blessed to have "Grandma and Grandpa," rainbow colored as they are, in my life. WE ARE ALSO KIN.
