Family

by Colleen Hyde Boyer

Several year ago, a young mother with three children was having many health problems. She was scheduled to have surgery that would end her family and her health problems. She decided she would like to go to the temple in the morning before she went to the hospital that afternoon. With her suitcase packed for her hospital stay, she entered The House of the Lord. While there, she asked the temple presidency to give her a blessing. The leaders agreed and they gave her a priesthood blessing.

During this blessing, they told her not to have the surgery with no explanation. She decided to heed their counsel and went home. For years, she waited for an answer to her faithfulness and was puzzled by this counsel. Four years later, I was born. I am so grateful for mother's obedience to the counsel of her leaders. She was a very faithful daughter of our Heavenly Father. I am also grateful for righteous leaders, who gave her this blessing. 

An eternal family is one of the greatest blessings our Heavenly Father can give us. Our family is a wonderful blessing to me. I am so grateful for each of you. As my family has grown significantly the last years, I am often overwhelmed by the feelings of responsibility this brings to me. I have had many family roles through the years. First, I was a daughter and a sister. Early in my life, I became an aunt (earlier than most because of the span in our family). Then I became a wife and a mother. In the last few years, I have taken on new roles as wife and step-mother, which have sometimes been the most challenging for me.

The most enjoyable role of all these has come to me with the role of grandmother. I have to admit, it has been the best! I love and enjoy this role the most. I look forward to many more grand-babies to love and to cherish. I pray that I might always be a righteous example of each of the roles I now or may be called to within my early life. May we always love and cherish our family. I pray that I will always live worthy of an eternal family with our earthly and with our Heavenly Parents and each of you.