TURNING OF THE HEARTS PART 1

 

 

I know something of the turning of the hearts to the fathers.

 

I struggled with a sense of powerlessness most of my life. I knew instinctively that this is not who I really am but the feeling persisted for most of my adulthood which led me to struggle with feelings of inadequacy.

 

I came to a realisation at one stage that this weakness had come to me from many generations of my family. I come from a long line of poor oppressed European peasants who had lived under the oppression of feudalism followed by socialism, the oppression which drummed into them that they could never rise above their station in life.

 

I had seen this mentality of powerlessness perpetrated in my family throughout my childhood and early adulthood in Europe. I have known my family's negative thoughts and their beliefs that influenced their lives and invited suffering.

 

From the time my family immigrated to Australia when I was 14,  and the Gospel came into my life, I could not understand why I was born into my family. I am the different one, the one that seeks and knows and loves God.

 

One day some years ago my frustration over my life which I felt was controlled by this sense of powerlessness sent me to my knees where through bitter tears I spat out to God that I hated my family and all the generations I have come from; that I hated who they were and what they had saddled me with. I felt I could not rise…..

 

I had never expressed such venomous thoughts before, to myself or to others, let alone to God. I begged to understand why I was sent into this family and why I carried their burden.  Within half an hour of my prayer, my heart and mind were flooded with immense understanding.

 

When the Saviour said 'my sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27) he was referring to those who are so spiritually advanced and who, because of it, recognise and wholeheartedly embrace the truth when it is presented to them. Bruce R. McConkie taught that this is a spiritual gift that was developed in pre-existence (Mormon Doctrine, p 81).

 

I count myself as one of His sheep. I was brought up in a strong Catholic community but I wanted to know God and I found the religion of my youth inadequate. I was 16 years of age when I sought and immediately accepted the Gospel into my life.

 

What has all this got to do with my ancestors? It has everything to do with our hearts being turned to our fathers. It was given to me to understand that those who are His sheep are often sent to families who need a spiritual shepherd. Someone who will, through their belief, give strength to those who need to be saved from their disbelief.

 

I understood through my revelation that what once was a physical oppression of my ancestors had become a spiritual one. How could a people who were made to believe that they could never rise above their station in this life, ever believe that they could rise to such a great station as godhood? When I understood this my heart was ‘turned’ to my fathers.

 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said that not only has God made the priesthood promises to the ancient patriarchs through which the nations of the earth will be blessed but that we “undoubtedly made them to our own lineal fathers and mothers, those who came to earth before the gospel was restored but whom we promised to provide its saving ordinances” (Christ and the New Covenant 1977, p. 297)

 

My patriarchal blessing tells me that I made a great promise in my pre-existence and that many of those spirits who were with me rejoiced when by my own testimony I fulfilled that ‘vow’ when I entered the waters of baptism. I know that vow was a promise to my fathers that I would make available to them the saving ordinances of the Gospel which would remove their stumbling block of disbelief. I know that I was chosen to be an under-shepherd in my family.

 

Oh the great mercies of our God!!! The mere ways of His wisdom are too overwhelming to contemplate! Who can comprehend His great works and means by which He saves and exalts His children??? And who can comprehend the path His Beloved Son willingly paved to bring all the sheep home…..to save every soul in His keep??? Surely every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is the Christ, the Holy One of God in whom all mercy, power and glory belongs!

 

See Father, I brought home the sheep!
I did all that I could
To guard them in my keep.
They come to You Father
In whose arms they belong,
They come to You,
Whom they loved all along.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Finding the One by Liz Lemon Swindle)