The Hearts of the Children

"And all these, having obtained a good report through faith, 

received not the promise:

God having provided some better thing

for us,

that they without us should not be made perfect."

-Hebrews 11:39-40

   Today, I got to teach the lesson in Relief Society meeting, the part of our services when the women of the church in our congregation meet together.  We talked about the promise that Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, made:

   "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." -Malachi 4:6 

    I think that those two scriptures, Hebrews 11:39-40 and Malachi 4:6, have a lot to do with each other.  I've wondered for a long time what it means to have "the heart of the children to their fathers," and what the blessings are if we do have our hearts turned to our fathers.  It must be a pretty important concept if the punishment for ignoring it is to have the earth smitten.

   The Prophet Joseph Smith has said: "The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead. ... For it is necessary that the sealing power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead for the fulness of the dispensation of times--a dispensation to meet the promises made by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world for the salvation of man. ... Hence, God said, 'I will send you Elijah the prophet.'"

   So, if we are thinking of "our fathers" as being our ancestors, which is how I think of this scripture, then it is our greatest responsibility in this world to seek after our dead.  We believe that those who have passed on will be resurrected, will have their body and spirit together again, and can have a family that is not just until "death do us part," but a family that can be together forever.

   Our ancestors are also part of our family and I think it's important that we love them by coming to know them.  For me, that means making a better effort to take advantage of the opportunities that my grandparents and parents have given to me to get to know and love my grandparents.  

  

    My dad loves doing family history, and even through all of the hard work he does, he spends time researching about our ancestors, traveling to the birthplaces of our family members.  He loves family history!  My Grandma Hoggard was also a great lover of genealogy, and my Grandpa Olson has written multiple books, on the stories he has from the war, his own autobiography, my great-grandma Harriet, and one of our ancestors, Seymour Brunson.  He has put a lot of time and effort into hard-working research and writing, which he loves to do.  He wants us as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren to think of our ancestors as heroes as well, as he has done, as people of faith, and people we should love. 

   I love my family, and I am so glad that I know that my family can be together forever.  I know that my family includes my ancestors and that I can do things to come to better understand and love them.