Relating the Abrahamic Covenant to Me

The Kings Children

Once there was a vast kingdom inhabited by many people. Unfortunately, there was much poverty and hardship
throughout the kingdom. People did not know what to do to make things better. The king selected five of his subjects for
special treatment. These fortunate individuals were educated, fed well, given a good paying job, and given free access to all
parts of the kingdom. The king merely told them that he loved them and wanted them to be able to build the kingdom and help
those who were less fortunate.
Anna loved learning. She worked hard to learn languages and history. Her interest in the things she studied motivated
her to arise early and read late into the night. Year in, and year out, she worked to deepen her knowledge and skills. She died
in her old age--happy, alone, and able to say goodbye in eight different languages.
Stephen became a capable administrator. He studied the principles of finance. Over the years, he accumulated a vast
fortune. Day after day, he toiled to add to his reserves. When he died of tuberculosis at seventy, he could have lived off his
savings for another hundred years.
Sophie quickly forgot her humble beginnings. Lost was an appreciation of her opportunities and advantages. She used
the king's help to party and seek distraction. Her death signaled the end to a life devoted to fun, entertainment, and self-
gratification. Her epitaph could have read, "Here lies a woman so wrapped up in herself that she made a pretty small package."
Nicholas and Arrabelle never forgot what had been done for them. Their gratitude oriented their lives. They knew the
advantages they had been given were not a reflection of what they deserved. They remembered the reason they were so
blessed was so they could bless others. Their life was a joyful effort to help others. The gifts they were given allowed them to
do things they would not even have thought of in their poverty.
While the king's gifts resulted in a few obsessing on themselves, Nicholas and Arrabelle used the gifts to look outward
and justify their exceptional opportunities. The way Anna, Stephen, and Sophie used their gifts caused the people of the
kingdom to believe the king was unfair and unkind. Nicholas and Arrabelle led people to rejoice in the goodness of the king.




Finding joy in troubled times
Occasionally, the many possible problems that lurk around the corner cast a shadow on today. We worry about
natural disasters, economic collapse, anarchy, war, energy shortages, disease, famine, and a host of other concerns. Actually,
we worry even more about the spiritual poisons surrounding our families. We pray we can inoculate our loved ones from sin,
apathy, distraction, and selfishness. In the midst of so many possible trials, we can struggle with insecurity and depression.
Young people may want to put off families, or disengage and pretend there is nothing to worry about.
There are secrets that can help us to stay involved and interested without becoming disillusioned. First, we must
overcome selfishness. When we are focused on wanting things, we are vulnerable to losses. When we orient our lives around
service and building the Kingdom, we become somewhat immune to financial reverses or temporal challenges. The person
who is focused on building the Kingdom, sharing the gospel, and preparing for the second coming views these days as being
filled with exciting opportunities.
Consecrated individuals are comforted by the Saviors analogy of the mother having a baby wherein the trials of
childbirth are immediately forgotten when the baby arrives. They are comforted by the promise of the millennium, but they
are also honored to live in days that have been prophesied for 6000 years. They realize that their worst fears are not much
worse than the common fare of mankind through the ages, while our opportunities transcend anything available in the past.
The key is focusing on the right opportunities. Spending our time riding roller coasters gives us a hollow and unfulfilled
feeling.
The humble person filled with love, knows happiness can occur in small homes and old cars. Like Paul, they have
learned how to be content in any circumstances. They revel in seeing days prophets have dreamed of, and doing things that
have never before been possible. Remembering gospel opportunities and advantages lends purpose to the last days. Imagine
that you were allowed to choose when you would be born. Wouldnt you have chosen to live in this day over any other time in
the worlds history? So, why the long faces?
Possessing the proper perspective dissolves worry and instills purpose. Rising above ourselves, allows us to be freed
of fears. We become filled with gratitude for the privilege of being part of the great winding up scenes of the world. We are
humbled that we can serve God and his children. This change in perspective makes all the difference in facing the future with
joy, gratitude, and excitement. When blessings that were given to us so that we can fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant become
empowerment to serve, rather than a means to fulfill selfish desires, life resolves into a choice blessing.




The Abrahamic Covenant
If we understand the Abrahamic Covenant, and the fact that we are the only ones who can fulfill it, we gain a purpose to our
lives that is powerful and fulfilling.











The world seeks to distract and demoralize Israel so that the Abrahamic Covenant is neglected. We must use our agency to
provide gospel service and control the temptations and distractions of the world. We are motivated to do this when:
1. We expand our vision of the unique duties and opportunities of being Israel.
2. We connect what we do today with our goals for the future.
3. We overcome selfishness and come to love God and our fellowman as we should.
My dear brothers and sisters, ours is the responsibility, even the solemn duty, to reach out to all of those whose lives we have
been called to touch. Our duty is to guide them to the celestial kingdom of God. May we ever remember that the mantle of
leadership is not the cloak of comfort but rather the robe of responsibility. May we reach out to rescue those who need our
help and our love. (Thomas S. Monson, "Sugar Beets and the Worth of a Soul", Ensign, July 2009, 25).
Patriarchal Blessings
What excited you the most about getting your patriarchal blessing? Did you look forward to learning
about your lineage? Most people tend to focus on clues they can obtain about their future. They long for
guidance that is available in the blessing. Few give more than passing attention to the tribe of Israel to which
they belong. Nevertheless, this is a very significant part of the experience.
Is it possible that part of the reason timing for obtaining a blessing is left to the individual pertains to the
need for us to exercise agency in claiming our blessing. Perhaps, when a person requests a blessing they are
declaring something about their availability for service. They are formalizing their relationship to Israel and
their role in the Abrahamic covenant. In a sense, you report for duty when you receive your blessing. You own
your responsibility as a soldier in the House of Israel and declare your desire to be part of the army that has a
special duty to bring the blessings of the gospel to all the kindreds of the earth. It is nice to receive orienting
guidance in a patriarchal blessing, but it is also important to acknowledge our affiliation with the group God
uses to fulfill His covenants to mankind. We have soldiers (individual members) join an army (Israel) to
accomplish the work of saving mankind while gaining for themselves all the Father has (the Abrahamic
Covenant).

Consider the following story as it teachers the power and orientation that come to us when we sense our call to
duty.
The Power of a Mission
As you know, the Brethren used to announce in general conference the names of those who had been
called on missions. Not only was this the way friends and neighbors learned of the call, more often than not it
was the way the missionary learned of it as well. One such prospect was Eli H. Peirce. A railroad man by trade,
he had not been very faithful in Church meetings, even had my inclinations led in that direction, which I
frankly confess they did not, he admitted. His mind had been given totally to what he demurely calls
temporalities. He said he had never read more than a few pages of scripture in his life, that he had spoken to
only one public gathering (an effort which he says was no credit to himself or those who heard him), and he
used the vernacular of the railroad and bar room with a finesse born of long practice. He bought cigars
wholesalea thousand at a timeand he regularly lost his paycheck playing pool. Then this classic
understatement:
The Abrahamic Covenant (which covenant shall be fulfilled in the latter days-1 Nephi 15:18) in essence states that God will give us all he has if we will strive to share
His blessings with our children and all mankind on both sides of the veil. These blessings are encapsulated in the gospel and allow us to:
1. Come to know Jesus Christ and use his life, teachings and atonement to face life productively and become perfected.
2. Change ourselves so that our weaknesses become strengths. We can use our agency to move from our carnal states to states of righteousness.
3. Make and keep covenants that qualify and empower us. Renewing and reviewing these covenants can make all the difference in facing the challenges of this
life and preparing for the next.
4. Live so that we depend on the regular promptings of the Spirit. The blessing of the Gift of the Holy Ghost provides each individual to purposefully live a
unique and rewarding life that connects Gods will with our specific opportunities and challenges.
5. Receive all that the Father has and be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom.


















Nature never endowed me with a superabundance of religious sentiment or veneration; my region of
spirituality [was] not high, but below the average.
Well, the Lord knew what Eli Peirce was, and he knew something else. He knew what Im pleading for
today. He knew what Eli Peirce could become. When the call came that October 5, 1875, Eli wasnt even in the
Tabernacle. He was out working on one of the railroad lines. A fellow employee, once he recovered from the
shock of it all, ran out to telegraph the startling news. Brother Peirce writes, At the very moment this
intelligence was being flashed over the wires, I was sitting lazily thrown back in an office rocking chair, my feet
on the desk, reading a novel and simultaneously sucking an old Dutch pipe just to vary the monotony of
cigar smoking.
He goes on: As soon as I had been informed of what had taken place, I threw the novel in the waste
basket, the pipe in a corner and started up town to buy [scripture]. Have never read a novel nor smoked a pipe
from that hour. Sent in my resignation to take effect at once, in order that I might have time for study and
preparation.
Then these stirring words: Remarkable as it may seem, and has since appeared to me, a thought of
disregarding the call, or of refusing to comply with the requirement, never once entered my mind. The only
question I asked myself a thousand times was: How can I accomplish this mission? How can I, who am so
shamefully ignorant and untaught in doctrine, do honor to God and justice to the souls of men, and merit the
trust reposed in me by the Priesthood?
With such genuine humility fostering resolution rather than defeating it, Eli Peirce fulfilled a remarkable
mission. His journal could appropriately close on a completely renovated life with this one line: Throughout
our entire mission we were greatly blessed. But I add one experience to make the point.
During the course of his missionary service, Brother Peirce was called in to administer to the infant child
of a branch president whom he knew and loved. Unfortunately the wife of the branch president had become
embittered and now seriously objected to any religious activity within the home, including a blessing for this
dying child. With the mother refusing to leave the bedside and the child too ill to move, this humble branch
president with his missionary friend retired to a small upper room in the house to pray for the babys life. The
mother, suspecting just such an act, sent one of the older children to observe and report back.
There in that secluded chamber, the two men knelt and prayed fervently until, in Brother Peirces own
words, we felt that the child would live and knew that our prayers had been heard. Arising from their knees,
they turned slowly only to see the young girl standing in the partially open doorway gazing intently into the
room. She seemed, however, quite oblivious to the movements of the two men. She stood entranced for some
seconds, her eyes immovable.
Then she said, Papa, who was that man in there?
Her father said, Brother Peirce.
No, she said matter-of-factly, I mean that other man.
There was no other, darling, except Brother Peirce and myself; we were praying for baby.
Oh, yes, there was; the child insisted, I saw him standing [above] you and Brother Pierce and he was
all dressed in white.
Now if God in his heavens will do that for a repentant, old, cigar-smoking, inactive, stern, swearing pool
player, dont you think hell do it for you? He will if your resolve is as deep and permanent as Eli Peirces. In
this Church we ask for faith, not infallibility. (Eliza R. Snow, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow,
1884, pp. 40713.)
--Jeffrey R. Holland, New Era, October 1980