Blessings and Miracles 5

I like to think that I have so much to be thankful for that I cannot decide what to write about. While this is true it is not the reason I have not written them down. Two weeks ago I was blessed with a new son and while I am grateful and extremely blessed to have his little spirit here early he will not be the topic of my gratitude this week. As I have written before I am saving my family for later posts. I have been reflecting on many great blessings over these past weeks and the topic I have been contemplating for some time will be my next post. For now the birth of my son did bring a great blessing I have witnessed many times in my life and I decided to write about that this week. The blessing and miracle I am referring to is the Priesthood and Priesthood blessings. Perhaps because I grew up in a home where the Priesthood was exercised that I took it for granted growing up. However now that I am grown it sometimes becomes difficult for me to use this Priesthood power for anything but extreme circumstances. Growing up we received a blessing from my dad every year before school started to help us with the year, and in needed occasions. One of the highlights of my life was receiving blessings from my dad. As you may or may not know my dad was and still is my hero. I looked up to him for everything as he always had the answers I was looking for. He had a way to calm or correct me in any circumstance. His prayers and blessings always made me feel wonderful and full of the spirit. I became a member of this church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost under the hands of my dad and even though I cannot remember what was said I remember what was felt. Starting the school year every year with a blessing let me know that everything was going to be alright. Those of you who know me know that I do dumb things once in awhile in which I need to go to the emergency room. Well September, 1997 I managed to blow up a water heater in my face and was rushed to the ER. I was lucky and managed to have only first and second degree burns on my hands and face and even though I was wearing contacts they were un-affected. This is the first time I have been to the ER and got rushed right in (and I have been quite a few times). The pain was terrible as I felt like I was constantly on fire and could not quench it no matter how I tried. They hooked me up to morphine and while I had access to an excess it did not help. My dad arrived soon afterward and with the help of my brother Todd they administered to me and my dad blessed me that the pain would leave and I would be left un-scarred. This blessing came to fruition as the pain almost instantly left and I have no scars of that event. My brother Todd mentioned how blessed we as a family were that we had not had serious accidents or deaths of any family members. Three months later my dad passed away and that was the last blessing I received from him. It's hard for me to accept blessings without my dad being the vocal piece; yet I was ordained an Elder by my grandpa years before and I did receive a blessing from my bishop years later when I rolled my ankle (another blessing story). I am thankful to say that whether a blessing is given by the hands of my father or by the hands of another it is the same Priesthood that blesses and heals and comforts. Today as a father myself I give my children fathers blessings every year before school starts and more recently I was able to bless Porter. While I had faith that Porter who was born 5 weeks early would pull through and overcome the challenges that faced his new life my wife thought a blessing was in order. I guess I didn't see this as an extreme circumstance and knew the lord would bless him. I was reminded however that sometimes humility (another later blessing story) and gratitude for what we have is more important and because I have the Priesthood I can use it to bless and heal also. I may not be as wonderfully versed as my dad, but I took that little baby in my arms and blessed him that his Billy Reuben levels would drop and that he would be a great servant for his Father in Heaven. We took Porter to the hospital and even though his levels had climbed everyday, that day they dropped and continued to drop on his own. I know now that there is no situation where the Priesthood cannot be used, and we do not need to wait for an extreme event to exercise it.