Power of Ordinances

As letter written to us Dec. 29, 2013

Dear Tyce and Family,

This Christmas I have thought a lot about the blessing of our ordinances.  Over the past years for some reason I have become more and more grateful for the reality of these great blessings.  Sister Clifford wrote this sweet note in our last Relief Society newsletter.  

“All of the ordinances invite us to increase our faith in Jesus Christ and to make and keep covenants with God. As we keep these sacred covenants, we receive priesthood power and blessings.” (Ensign, November 2013, 92)

 

I grew up in a single-parent home after my dad passed away. Although there was rarely a priesthood holder living in our home, I always felt the warmth and light that comes from the power of the priesthood—that power intended for the blessing and salvation of all God’s children. My mother kept the covenants she had made, and she helped us children keep the covenants we had made. Because we kept our covenants, as simple as some of them were, there was a warmth and a protection in our lives. Some of the blessings we can receive through the priesthood because we keep our covenants include revelation, spiritual gifts, increased faith in Christ and ability to found our lives on Him, and power to overcome trials and temptations.

As we bask in the light of Christmas, may we remember the love of our Heavenly Father who has blessed us so richly, and who has given us access to the blessings of the priesthood through our faithfulness, whatever our family situation.  - Sister Antonia Clifford

Please know we love each of you so very much.  I too know the blessings of keeping covenants are very real.  Thank you for coming to know of this reality yourselves it brings us so much peace.  

Love you so much!

Mom

Bearing one another's burdens

The Book of Mormon reminds us that even the prophet Alma had to bear the burden of having a rebellious son. But Alma was blessed with covenant-keeping brothers and sisters in the gospel who were deeply converted unto the Lord and had learned what it meant to bear each other’s burdens. We are familiar with the verse in Mosiah that speaks of the great faith of Alma’s prayers in behalf of his son. But the record states that “the Lord … heard the prayers of his people,and also the prayers of his servant, Alma.”⁸

The Savior's Loved

Why was the Savior willing to keep His covenant with the Father and fulfill His divine mission to atone for the sins of the world? It was His love for His Father and His love for us. Why was the Father willing to allow His Only Begotten and perfect Son to suffer pain beyond description to bear the sins, heartaches, sicknesses, and infirmities of the world and all that is unfair in this life? We find the answer in these words: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”²²

The Power, Joy, and Love of Covenant Keeping BY LINDA K. BURTON Oct 2013

Covenants

A wise mother I know intentionally includes her children in her efforts to keep her covenants. She joyfully bears the burdens of neighbors, friends, and ward members—and comforts those who stand in need of comfort. It was not surprising when her young daughter recently came asking for help to know how to best comfort her friend whose father had just passed away. That was a perfect setting to teach that her desire to comfort her friend was one way to keep her baptismal covenant. How can we expect children to make and keep temple covenants if we don’t expect them to keep their first covenant—their baptismal covenant?

The Power, Joy, and Love of Covenant Keeping BY LINDA K. BURTON Oct 2013

Personal Revelation through General Conference

“If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you,” Elder Holland 

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father

As daughters of God we are each unique and different in our circumstances and experiences. And yet our part matters—because we matter. Our daily contributions of nurturing, teaching, and caring for others may seem mundane, diminished, difficult, and demeaning at times, and yet as we remember that first line in the Young Women theme—“We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us”—it will make all the difference in our relationships and our responses.

(2013 April General Conference, We Are Daughters of Our Heavenly Father, Sat. Morning Session - By Elaine S. Dalton)

What-e'er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part

When I was in college, I was a member of the BYU International Folk Dancers. One summer our group had the unique privilege to tour the missions in Europe. It was a difficult summer for me because a few months earlier my father had unexpectedly passed away. While we were in Scotland, I felt especially alone and became discouraged. We danced at a chapel that night, and then after our performance we went next door to the mission home. As I proceeded up the walk, I saw a stone placed in a well-kept garden by the gate. On it I read the words, “What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.” At that moment those words went deeply into my heart, and I felt the powers of heaven reach out and give me a message. I knew I was known by a loving Heavenly Father. I felt I was not alone. I stood in that garden with tears in my eyes. “What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.” That simple statement renewed my vision that Heavenly Father knew me and had a plan for my life, and the spirit I felt helped me understand that my part mattered.

Later I learned that this saying had once motivated the prophet David O. McKay while he was serving as a young missionary in Scotland. He had seen it on a stone on a building at a discouraging time in his life and on his mission, and the words lifted him. Years later as the building was being torn down, he made arrangements to obtain the stone and had it placed in the garden at the mission home.

(2013 April General Conference, We Are Daughters of Our Heavenly Father, Sat. Morning Session - By Elaine S. Dalton)