Fruit of they loins 2 Nephi 3

Fruit of thy loins... 

You can't buy it. ..
                 You can't invent it
                           You can't discover it.. 
                                      You can't learn it... 
                                               and you will never own it. 

It's a gift. It's a promise fulfilled.
      It's a sacrifice worth taking.  It's where eternity lies. It's how God bestows on us our greatest joy.

2Nephi 3 is about how God protects our faith with his promises. How the covenants he makes with our fathers get passed down and are kept... by Him. Only we can break our covenants with God. God is faithful. He will always keep his promises. This chapter is a witness to the love of God to Lehi's family.

The gift of the "fruit of our loins"  comes when we choose to share the love we have for God with our chosen companion, our eternal helpmate, our partner and spouse. It comes when we face a "wilderness of afflictions" and great sorrow and hold fast to our covenants. It comes when we, no matter the circumstances bear our children into mortality. The gift of the "fruit of our loins" is not meant to be confused with having offspring.  Only children born under or blessed by the covenant can have the right to be esteemed as "fruit of our loins" because they alone are privy to understanding and respecting  the power of the priesthood covenants. These priesthood blessings then allow us to bestow these blessings upon our posterity.

In reading through this patriarchal blessing that Lehi bestows on Joseph, I realized that Lehi wanted to give a great inheritance to his youngest son. What could be greater than the gift of eternal perspective with regards to God's love for his family? He promises him land and security.... if they (his seed) will keep the commandments of God. He promises that his seed will never be completely destroyed but will continue forward through the generations of his family toward the time when the Lord would answer the covenant that he made with their ancestor Joseph of Egypt.

And then from verse 4 clear to verse 24, as he teaches his son about the covenant he proceeds to use the phrase "fruit of thy loins" or a version thereof some 23 times. If I were giving a blessing and wanted to emphasize the importance of something to a very young child, I might use the power of repetition to do it. Children and many adults respond to repetition. It echos within our mind like a song.

"the fruit of they loins shall write and
the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write...
and ....shall grow together" vs 12

As I read this chapter and reread this chapter I began to see the power of God's love. It is manifest in the covenants that he makes with us so that we might have "security forever." It is manifest in his promise to bring us "our of darkness into light." It is manifest in the method of God's love as he chooses to show Joseph of Egypt his future seed and the many miracles that the Lord would preform for them. And he chooses to show Lehi so that Lehi can pass down this beautiful promise. I have to wonder about the amazing joy that Joseph Smith must have felt as he translated this chapter and how he might have pondered verse 15? or 12?

God's love is something the world has misunderstood. They have wanted it be found in fame, fortune, or even education. God's love revolves around his values. God values us. We are his children.

We live in a world where women are taught that their value lies in the making of money - not in bearing children - wear children are counted as a nuisance, an expense, a distraction from our "life work." Only after they have achieved monetary success do many women lend their efforts and desires to their unborn children.  Where men are torn apart by their desire to protect their family from the ills of the world and find a measure and a balance of monetary success. We live in a world where precious covenants and blessings of family life are traded for handheld idols, recreation, and new found technological addictions. We live in a world where the security that comes from keeping our covenants with God gets washed away in a sea of discontent and need for material possessions or constant communication with those who idle their  minds away on frivolous commentary. Where are their hearts? Where does the integrity of their hearts lie? When it comes to the "fruit of their loins" who will turn their hearts? Who but a prophet raised for this day?vs 7

 I am so very thankful for the counsel of living prophets. When I was a young mother they counseled couples who were married to pay heed to their biological clocks and bear their families while they were young. Even though I was anxious about my own educational and life goals, I chose to follow this wise and eternal counsel.

Lehi blesses Joseph (Hawaii Temple)

As I enter the meridian of my life, my greatest joy continues to be the blessings that each of my children bring to me. Each of them has a set of gifts that come from the well of spiritual life that defines them. Each has bestowed upon me a new perspective, a new level of joy,  new opportunities to grow in ways I could have never imagined nor planned or programed or ever conceived. Each of my children love me in a way that only God could bless me with. How grateful I am for living prophets who counsel us to honor family covenants and bless our own lives and the lives of those we love with family.

And as I think and ponder the words of Lehi as he blesses his son Joseph, I can only hope that my own children will one day feel the joy and deep understanding that Lehi conveyed to his son Joseph - or that Joseph of Egypt knew when the Lord showed him the future accomplishments of his seed.

I can only hope that the covenants my fathers have made with the Lord will be fulfilled through my own "fruit," and that I too will have a place in this great work of love that God has chosen to bestow on families that honor the covenants they have made with him.

3 Nephi 3: 1-5 Family Covenants

Joseph of Egypt shares his vision of dreams 

 I remember my Grandfather sitting in his office writing. He was always working on a novel - a western I believe. He let me read part of it once. I was taken back with all of the  editing marks, but still I was impressed with his courage and effort.  He was a writer (and a painter) and he wanted more than anything to pass this passion on to  his descendants. ie. My father and me. And here I am. He did it. 

I don't believe that I will ever write a novel, but who knows? I have discovered the link between writing and inner peace. The ability to express my feelings on paper seems to be linked to my father and grandfather. 

So when I read this third chapter of 2 Nephi and began to comprehend it as a blessing of inheritance I of course had to think about my grandfather. One of my favorite memories is when he let me steal away to the second floor bedroom with his journal. When I read about my Dad's first steps, I was hooked. I not only saw, but felt the magic of his words. 

Not too many years before Grandfather's time came, he tried to give me his journal. He tried to get me to take it home with me. I wrapped my arms around it's large binding and was overcome with joy. But soon the realization that these memories had rights struck me.  I refused his offer on the grounds that it was not my place. My Aunt has rightful possession of it now. I believe inheritance should pay proper respect. 

In it he spoke of the difficulties of farm life. Of the joys of his mother's love. So when I read Lehi's words about Joseph's wilderness of afflictions, I thought of my grandfather. And when later in the chapter I read about Lehi's descendants and ancestors and how the Lord had made covenants with them, how the Lord would bring them out of darkness, I thought of my grandfather. 

His grandfather's came from Ireland looking for a "precious land" where his seed could find "inheritance ... for security forever."(vs2)   if it so be it that they should keep the commandments of the Holy one of Israel. We have a Presbyterian Church in London Ontario that the Conkey Family donated the land for. Many of the first immigrant families are buried there. 

Like Lehi, Grandfather's father's did not want their seed to be destroyed. They wanted to do whatever they had to do to ensure that "thy seed shall not utterly be destroyed." (vs3)

Grammpa Hal would sit and tell me about the days past.  And like Lehi I could hear stories about distant ancestors who left the families homeland so that security could be found. Security from war, from famine, from sin. Security promised through covenants with God. 

Joseph of Egypt was Lehi's g g g g (? how many) great grandfather. He had made a covenant with God and God had made promises to Joseph about his descendants. I have no doubt that my  grandfathers were God fearing men who prayed a mighty prayer. I believe that the reason I am writing today is because of their blood that surges through me. I believe that there is great power in understanding what it means to be "the fruit of thy loins." When we understand the sacrifice, the humility, the prayer, the patience, and the honesty that our fathers fought for and lived for , it enlightens my resolve. 

So I began to wonder about my own family? about the talents, gifts, blessings, strengths, weaknesses and darkness that exists in our gene pool. And I began to see that God loved Lehi's family enough to ensure their survival, "yea, out of hidden darkness and out of captivity unto freedom." (vs5) And like Lehi I began to see how the Lord has blessed our family with the power to write words and speak what we believe. And I began to see how my own father's talent has guided me and has protected me and has become a beacon to bring his own descendants out of darkness, if only we will remember the covenants our fathers have made with the "Lord God." 

Lehi's family had a major role to play in the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His branch would go on to write a stick that would witness to the "stick of Judah". His family contained many prophets that would testify to the Lord Jesus Christ's divinity and would carry out a great work. And Lehi was able to share this with his son how? Because "Joseph truly saw our day," and "obtained a promise of the Lord." And because Lehi understood the importance of the written word to his descendants. As a prophet he had been commanded to write, as Joseph of Egypt had written. The power of these written promises serves not only to remind future generations but to motivate them to live for them. 

My families gospel journey has just begun. With my father's conversion and baptism on 17 December 1960, our family's faith has continued to climb further and further out of darkness. Truth brings light and strength. With each truth revealed we gain new understanding. We have had many weaknesses made strong. We have learned the power of the written word. We have tested our faith. And because we have learned of our ancestors faith we have been able to further understand the promises of our Lord with our fathers. Great or weak.. It is the  our beginning and,  our journey. One that we grow increasingly stronger on. One that exists, I exist, I love, I breath because of the covenants of my father, and his fathers.