THE IMPORTANCE OF HANDING YOUR CHILDREN A LEGACY

I have been in a state of war (of sorts) over values.  Those of family members who have faded and some whom have openly gone at war against common sense and good values and time-tested principle.  The war on values that is taking many members of the Church down right now is being fought on the front lines in families.

I am constantly being reminded to have a charitable attitude towards those who are wondering and wandering - but I struggle with the greatest of all gifts when there are those who have pitted themselves against what is good and right.  And who have used their familial position to tell others that "it is okay to take a 'test drive', before you marry" or that one drag on a cig or joint is no big deal or that a "few beers won't hurt anyone".

Considering what we have going on around us (a nation of drunkards, illegitimate children and broken families and druggies), I hardly think any of the above "advice" has ANY merit.  And so I stand up against and swat down the trash that pushes those ideas forward.  And further warn them that if they do NOT repent, they will have to pay to the uttermost farthing the debt they will have incurred for those over whom they had stewardship - and that they will not only pay their own debts, but also a portion of those of them whom they led astray.  A generation of vipers shall not escape the damnations of hell.

And then there are those who have the luxury of having come from honorable blood lines.  I recently ran into one - and what a blessing it must be to be able to rise up and call mother and father blessed - and grandmother and grandfather blessed and so on, and so on.  This individual had all eight siblings who served missions and all ten siblings of one of the parents who served missions (male and female - in a time when it was not all too common for females to serve en-masse like it is today.

A good value set is everything.  A goodly parentage is an eternal blessing.  As I said in a recent post, family is whom will stick with good values - for values are the glue that bind a generation to those of the household of faith back to our earliest progenitor. 

I shared a story of this individual whose ancestor commanded the storms to part.  Here is another one where there was some interaction with the Prophet Joseph Smith:

Here is the gem that comes from BF's "My Life's Review" which also contains a little tidbit about the tribes that rang true when I read VOG:

           I can now see, as Prest Geo. A. Smith afterwards said, that I was then really “the bosom friend and companion of the Prophet Joseph.” I was as welcome at the Mansion as at my own house, and on one occasion when at a full table of his family and chosen friends, he placed me at his right hand and introduced me as his “friend, Br. B. F. Johnson, at whose house he sat at a better table than his own.” Sometimes when at my house I asked him questions relating to past, present and future; some of his answers were taken by Br. Wm Clayton, who was then present with him, and are now recorded in the Doc. & Covenants; the one as to what the Lord told him in relation to seeing his face at 85 years of age; also the one as to the earth becoming as a sea of glass, molten with fire. Other questions were asked when Br. Clayton was not present, one of which I will relate: – I asked where the 9 1/2 tribes of Israel were: “Well,” said he, you remember the old caldron or potash kettle you used to boil maple sap in for sugar, don’t you?” I said yes, “Well,” said he, they are in the north pole in a concave just the shape of that kettle. “And John the Revelator is with them, preparing them for their return.” Many other things of a public or private nature I might here record, but will only notice one or two, and those pertaining to our own family: – In Macedonia the Johnsons were quite numerous and influential and the envious dubbed us the “Royal Family.” When Joseph heard of this honor conferred upon us by our neighbors, he said the [name] was and should be a reality; that we were a royal family; and he knowing the intemperance of my father said that he should yet be a great man and stand at the head of a kingdom. On one occasion he blessed my mother and told her that not one of all her children should ever leave the Church; which, up to this, the year 1894, has been the case; and now that as a family we number not less than one thousand, not not one of the kindred by blood has ever yet apostatized that I know of.

  THIS is legacy.  The only thing we can leave with our children - that is of any value.  Not an inheritance of dollars, or of looks or of things.  Just a good past and a good launch into a good future.

That is what our Father in Heaven has given to us.  Some of us piddling it away - others making the most of the talents we have been given.  Some will be multiplied - some will have that which they were given, taken away.

We can choose to repent now and accept the covering blood of Christ - or we can choose to go it alone and suffer the penalties on our own. 

We have a choice in the matter.  Our destinies rest in our hands.