FAMILY TREE OF LOVE

 

We have spread our wings

Like birds in flight

In this world far and wide;

Yet our hearts will nest

In branches seeking the sky above

Forever and ever

United together on the family tree of love.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art Unknown)

OF GENERATIONS

 

I remember hearing a story years ago about a woman who had the habit of cutting off the end of the leg of lamb before baking. When she was asked why she did that she said her mother always did it so she thought that was the right way to bake lamb. When the mother was questioned she said her mother always did it so she thought that it should be done. When the grandmother was questioned she said she didn’t have a roasting pan big enough so she had to cut off the end of the leg. The things we pass on stays in us…..

I have many times recognized things about me that were intergenerational beliefs, attitudes and programming. Many of my European inclinations and characteristics became quite obvious in contrast to the western society norm when my family moved to Australia. I had to change some things about myself to fit into my new environment.

While I was growing up in Croatia, I was very aware of the animosity that existed between the Croats and Serbs. I am sure it went back to the land somehow but nobody of my generation or even my parents’ generation understood why exactly we weren’t supposed to like each other. Even though my parents didn’t fully understand, they were, nevertheless, quick to promote their disdain because it was expected.

We are very much the sum of those who went before us…..the generations whose blood runs in our veins. We are the inheritors of their personalities and characteristics, good or bad. On a personal level, I remember seeing my mother more than once in tears saying: “God created me to suffer.”  And yes I have focused on a lot of my suffering in life because of that. Like mother, like daughter. I also picked up her propensity to criticize others. To this day I am vigilant about this flaw.

I come from generations of poor peasants who lived under the feudal system and then under socialism. My paternal grandmother had six children. When one of them died in infancy she said: “Well, that’s one less mouth to feed.” I never saw this grandmother smile in my whole life. The generations of poverty mentality, likewise, has followed me around for most of my life. Not that I am rich now, but I no longer care.

There are a number of places in the scriptures where God says: “I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (see Deut 5:9,10; Exodus 20:5,6). It puzzled me why the children would have to be punished because of the sins of their fathers. I came to realise with time that hate very much gets passed down from generation to generation. It begins with someone but never ends with them and it evolves into a serious sin. A classical example is the Middle East.

Generational flaws and sins can end with any generation and this is how. When we are born into this world, we take upon ourselves our father’s name. When we are spiritually born through baptism, we take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ. We become CHRISTians. King Benjamin explained this means that we become ‘the children of Christ’. He mentions the importance of having Christ’s name 11 times in 6 verses of Mosiah 5 (V 7-12). Why is this important? Because, just as we are genetically predisposed to inherit physical and mental traits of our earthly fathers, so we, when we take upon ourselves the name of Christ, and live his teachings, inherit His spiritual qualities. In other words, we become like Him by the virtue of our newly acquired parental bond (Moroni 7:48). This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘you’re just like your father’, does it not???

I know love existed in the generations of my family. Europeans are passionate people. I have inherited that quality from them. I think deeply and I feel deeply. The memory of them ties me to my homeland. I look forward to meeting those whose names I only know on paper, when I pass on to next life. I want to shower them with love and bring them to God who has given me meaning and understanding of my humanity. I want to resolve their long-held prejudices that have robbed them of their potential. I want to tell them they were not born to suffer.

 

Your life has come and gone

But your footprints remain

And your blood courses through my veins.

I know your smile and your frown

Though we have never met.

They are worn by my children

As gems in family diadem;

You are the root

That reaches the branches,

I am the stem that paves the way.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art Unknown)

ALWAYS THERE

 

I marvel as You lead me over mountains

and over vales;

And when I often fall,

You soothe away my pains.

I marvel at Thy patience,

I marvel at Thy love,

I marvel at Thy faith in me

And what I can become.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

A JUST GOD

 

Forgiven by Thomas Blackshear

On Judgment Day, the balance between justice and mercy will be so perfect that we will not be able to question it. This is the greatest lesson I learnt from David of the Old Testament.

I can think of no one who would have wept more when David forfeited his exaltation than the Saviour himself. To lose someone with so much promise and faithfulness would have been agonizing to Him. As a youth, he was said to be a man after the Lord’s “own heart” (1 Sam 13:14) and as a man, he spoke by the Spirit and had many revelations (see Guide to the Scriptures: David)

If there was anyone the Saviour could have been excessively merciful to, it would have been David but where would that have left Uriah, a man of principle and loyalty, and his innocent blood that was spilt? The man who had no say….whose wife was taken from him, who suffered an unjust death???  One truth remains….mercy cannot rob justice (Alma 42:25).

I saw the perfect nature of the God that we worship and trust through this story.  He knows all: our hearts, our capabilities, our intents, our weaknesses, our pains, our desires, our sufferings…. everything that could induce mercy….but yet He obeys all the laws that He himself is governed by. Because He is the giver of law and the sustainer of law, it is impossible for Him to violate law, including the law of justice (see Discourses of Brigham Young p1, Mormon Doctrine p 432-3, Mediation and Atonement p 168).

So  a king who was destined for exaltation fell from God’s grace and became an example of the perfect balance of justice and mercy. The justice was the loss of exaltation but the mercy was the gift of resurrection to all the human family including those who commit murder and inherit a much lesser kingdom of glory which, nevertheless, surpasses all understanding (D&C 132:38,39; D&C 76:89). David’s repentance and godly sorrow led to his gratefulness that the Saviour will not leave his soul in hell (Psalms 16:10; Acts 2:27; Acts 2:25-28; 13:22-37; Isaiah 55:3). This hope of resurrection of the unjust is known as ‘the sure mercies of David’ (see Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 272).

The Psalms of David, who ‘foresaw the Lord always before his face’, are heart wrenching evidence of his unfailing love and praise of Jehovah (Acts 2:25). Even though he committed a grievous sin, he never turned away from the God of Israel. May we follow suit when sin finds us and turn to Him who can forgive and yet rescue our souls from everlasting misery and may we harbour in our heart David’s testimony forever: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn (strength, power) of my salvation….” (Psalms 18:2).

He is the one and only giver of mercy, forgiveness and salvation and there is none else….not in heaven above, or earth beneath…..nothing, nobody, nowhere…..(Deuteronomy 4:35,39;5:8 ;Isaiah 43:10-11; 45:5,6,14,18,22; 46:9; D&C 76:1; 2 Nephi 25:20; 31:21; Moses 6:52)

 

Will You come and carry me

When all my strength is gone?

Will Your mercy spill from You

When I can walk no more?

 

Will Your mercy lift me higher

To glimpse my eternal home?

Will I see my soul there

Before Your gilded throne?

 

When the sum of my life is done

Will You bring me home to keep?

I’ll want to kneel and honour You

Before Your Mercy Seat.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

AND THE ANGELS SING

Angels by Wendy Keller

I pleaded with you,

In the beginning,

To bring me home again to Thee.

I promised to heed every call,

To avoid every danger,

To abhor every sin.

 

I have laboured, Father,

to bring joy to Thee

and To be worthy

Of Your love for me.

 

When my time comes,

I will come home to Thee

and I will wait

 at heaven’s door knocking

Until I hear the angels sing.

 

-      Cathryne Allen 

 

THE POWER OF CONSEQUENCES

 

In the words of C.S. Lewis: “The heart can and should obey the head”. David, the King of Israel is concrete proof of these words.

There comes a time when we rise to the top and get too comfortable….Instead of being in battle with his troops, David was idling on the roof of his house watching a woman of great beauty washing herself (2 Samuel 10:2). From the wrong place at the wrong time ensued an adulterous affair which led to murder.

We tend to only see the tragedy of David in this story and forget there was a woman embroiled in his sin. David did not spiritually destroy just one person. I often wonder about the woman in this equation. She was a subject of David’s kingdom. Did she have a say in whether she followed him into sin? Was she subjected to his command and had no say? Did she try to dissuade him? Did she love her husband and went against that love because David was king and had the power to command? Whichever was the truth, he was the king and she was the subject. He was in charge.  And what about the husband who lost his life because David’s heart did not obey his head?

And this makes it even worse….. David had many wives and concubines which were given to him of the Lord by the hand of Nathan, the prophet. It is Nathan who was sent to prick David's conscience regarding the one wife that was not given to him of God and which 'displeased the Lord' (2 Sam 11:27). It was Jehovah through Nathan, his servant, that brought David to his knees.

 

Nathan recounted a parable to David in these words:  "There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared his own flock and his own herd to prepare a meal for the wayfaring man but took the poor man's lamb instead and dressed it for a meal for the man that was come to him” (2 Sam 12:2-4).

 

Perhaps the most sombre words spoken to anyone in the scriptures were Nathan's words to David as he responded to his outrage about the rich man who took the poor man's lamb and prepared it as a meal to a weary traveller whilst sparing so many lambs that he owned. At David's insistence that the man should be put to death for such a selfish act, Nathan's response to him cut deep as he said: "Thou art the man" (2 Sam 12:7).

 

Nathan then continued to recount all that the God of Israel had done for David, pointing out his gross sin of murder and prophesying all the calamities that would befall him. He would not be put to death as the law required but he was given a worse punishment than that. The child born to David and Bathsheeba died and David lived to see many of his wives and sons turn against him and much of his household turn to infighting and blood.

Such is the reward of sin…..devastation and destruction….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: David by Harry Ahn)

KAHLIL GIBRAN ON PAIN

The Master Potter by Paige Payne

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your 

understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart 

may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily

miracles of your life,

your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, 

even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters

of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you

heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in

silence and tranquility;

For his hand, though heavy and hard,

is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been

fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His

own sacred tears.

- Kahlil Gibran