This is for Ted.
None of the ordinances we may perform would have any efficacy without the sealing power.
Four things to do as a priesthood father:
- Gain and keep a sure witness of the priesthood keys.
- Love your wife and put her happiness first.
- Enlist the entire family to love each other.
- Lead your family in the Lord’s way when discipline is needed.
Feeling loved in the family most effectively comes most often from the mother but it can very importantly come from other siblings.
The Holy Ghost shall be they constant companion and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness.
I am not sure if I realized that Oliver Cowdery held the sealing power.
The return of Elijah blessed all who hold the priesthood. Elder Harold B. Lee made that clear as he spoke in general conference, quoting President Joseph Fielding Smith. Listen carefully: “I hold the priesthood; you brethren here hold the priesthood; we have received the Melchizedek Priesthood—which was held by Elijah and by other prophets and by Peter, James and John. But while we have authority to baptize, while we have authority to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost and to ordain others and do all these things, without the sealing power we could do nothing, for there would be no validity to that which we did.”
President Smith went on:
“The higher ordinances, the greater blessings which are essential to exaltation in the kingdom of God, and which can only be obtained in certain places, no man has a right to perform except as he receives the authority to do it from the one who holds the keys. …
“… There is no man upon the face of this earth who has the right to go forth and administer in any of the ordinances of this gospel unless the President of the Church, who holds the keys, sanctions it. He has given us authority, he has put the sealing power in our priesthood, because he holds those keys.”
That same assurance came from President Boyd K. Packer as he wrote of the sealing power. Knowing these words are true is a comfort to me, as it will be to the family I will seal on April 3: “Peter was to hold the keys. Peter was to hold the sealing power, … to bind or seal on earth or to loose on earth and it would be so in the heavens. Those keys belong to the President of the Church—to the prophet, seer, and revelator. That sacred sealing power is with the Church now. Nothing is regarded with more sacred contemplation by those who know the significance of this authority. Nothing is more closely held. There are relatively few men who [hold] this sealing power upon the earth at any given time—in each temple are brethren who have been given the sealing power. No one can get it except from the prophet, seer, and revelator and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
Melchizedek Priesthood holders who are fathers in sealed families have been taught what they must do. There is nothing that has come or will come into your family as important as the sealing blessings. There is nothing more important than honoring the marriage and family covenants you have made or will make in the temples of God.
The way to do that is clear. The Holy Spirit of Promise, through our obedience and sacrifice, must seal our temple covenants in order to be realized in the world to come. President Harold B. Lee explained what it means to be sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise by quoting Elder Melvin J. Ballard: “We may deceive men but we cannot deceive the Holy Ghost, and our blessings will not be eternal unless they are also sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Ghost is one who reads the thoughts and hearts of men, and gives his sealing approval to the blessings pronounced upon their heads. Then it is binding, efficacious, and of full force.”
As a young father, sealed in the temple and with my heart turned to my wife and a young family, I met President Joseph Fielding Smith for the first time. In the First Presidency council room, where I had been invited, came an absolutely sure witness to me as President Harold B. Lee asked me, indicating President Smith, who was sitting next to him, “Do you believe that this man could be the prophet of God?”
President Smith had just entered the room and had not yet spoken a word. I am eternally grateful that I was able to answer because of what came down into my heart, “I know he is,” and I knew it as surely as I knew the sun was shining that he held the priesthood sealing power for all the earth.
Would I have the same witness if I were to meet President Monson? I should.
Four things you can do as a priesthood father to lift and lead your family home again to be with Heavenly Father and the Savior.
- Gain and keep a sure witness that the keys of the priesthood are with us and held by the President of the Church.
- Pray for that every day
- You will feel an increase in determination to lead your family
- You will have feelings of hope, and greater happiness in your service
- You will be more cheerful and optimistic
- Love your wife
- It will take faith and humility to put her interests above your own
- I think that is counterproductive for me because I have been putting Laura’s interests ahead of my own for years and the result is a family that is almost devoid of a mother and saddled with a father who is bitter and mean most of the time.
- Enlist the entire family to love each other
- President Benson said: “Children need to know and feel they are loved, wanted, and appreciated. They need to be assured of that often. Obviously, this is a role parents should fill, and most often the mother can do it best.”
- Another crucial source for that feeling of being loved is love from other children in the family. Consistent care of brothers and sisters for each other will come only with persistent effort by parents and the help of God.
- One way for you to reproduce the successes of Father Lehi is by the way you lead family prayers and family time, such as family home evenings.
- Give children opportunities to pray, when they can pray, for each other in the circle who need blessings.
- When they pray for each other and serve each other, hearts will be softened and turned to each other and to their parents.
- When discipline is needed we can meet our obligation to correct in the Lord’s way and then lead our children toward eternal life.
- Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved
- This is one area I desperately need to improve but I need more help to achieve that.
First, . The answer will come with an increase in determination to lead your family, in your feelings of hope, and with greater happiness in your service. You will be more cheerful and optimistic, a great blessing for your wife and family.
The second imperative is to love your wife. It will take faith and humility to put her interests above your own in the struggles of life. You have the responsibility to provide for and to nurture the family with her while serving others. That can at times consume all the energy and strength you have. Age and illness may increase your wife’s needs. If you choose even then to put her happiness above your own, I promise you that your love for her will increase.
Third, enlist the entire family to love each other. President Ezra Taft Benson taught:
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