Patriarchal Blessings

[MustardSeed]

It seems like it’s been such a long time since I have heard any talk of patriarchal blessings at church.  
 

Do you look at/use yours?  It’s been a long time since I looked at mine.  Mine refers to the idea that self esteem is not a quality of the Celestial Kingdom- I’ve always wondered about that. Wonder if it’s a type-o.  
 

I used mine all the time as a young adult.  I think I saw it more as a literal directive and future reader.  

[InCognitus]

19 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

It seems like it’s been such a long time since I have heard any talk of patriarchal blessings at church.  

I'm sure it varies from ward to ward, but the Stake Patriarch spoke recently in our ward as a companion to the high council speaker (and of course he spoke on patriarchal blessings).  And there was an entire talk devoted to the topic at the April General Conference:  When to Receive Your Patriarchal Blessing, By Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita.

19 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

I used mine all the time as a young adult.  I think I saw it more as a literal directive and future reader.

I haven't read mine as often now as I did when I was a young adult, but when I read it now I get a completely different perspective on some of the things said in it and even recognize some fulfillment of blessings made in it (and the reason for some of the warnings).  It's like re-reading scripture every year in Come Follow Me (or prior programs).  Yeah, I read it before, but maybe this year I get something new from it and find new ways to apply it.

Edited December 11, 2023 by InCognitus

[BlueDreams]

1 hour ago, MustardSeed said:

It seems like it’s been such a long time since I have heard any talk of patriarchal blessings at church.  
 

Do you look at/use yours?  It’s been a long time since I looked at mine.  Mine refers to the idea that self esteem is not a quality of the Celestial Kingdom- I’ve always wondered about that. Wonder if it’s a type-o.  
 

I used mine all the time as a young adult.  I think I saw it more as a literal directive and future reader.  

The self-compassion end of thinking would agree with the self-esteem thing. It is a weird thing to write up in a Pb though. 

I think we recently had a GC talk on it 1-2 conferences ago. 

I used mine a ton in my teens and 20's. I wore out the paper from where I folded it to fit it in my scriptures. At some point I decided to transcribe it so that I could read it in my laptop and phone. At this point i still see its application now and look at it at least a few times a year in part or full.

At the time I received it it came with a letter about what it was and how it could apply to my life. So I don't think I fully took it as a future reader even though that would have made sense to do at my age (I was 14 when I got mine). Personally, I was most focused on the 3 major experiences/answers I had spiritually while receiving it and would be for years. Receing It taught me what God's peace felt like at a time I couldn't remember experiencing peace. It taught me that I loved my husband and would have a good future with him at a time my parent's marriage was pretty painful to live with. And i felt strongly that I'd serve a mission. As those things happened it would fulfill other things. I know there's people that are meh or don't really feel much for theirs, but I'm definitely not one of them. It is one of my most formative spiritual experiences, and has been a source of guidance and support for the 20 years since then. My husband has a meh blessing (super generic and not that instructive) and hardly ever reads his, but i'll find him looking over mine when I'm reading it near him. He prefers my blessing over his and it can apply to him a bit since there's plenty of references to him and our family in it. 

I think of it as more of a liahona. It's as directive as much as I've been willing to be directed. And it changes in significance as my own context has changed. 

 

With luv,

BD 

Edited December 11, 2023 by BlueDreams

[CV75]

1 hour ago, MustardSeed said:

It seems like it’s been such a long time since I have heard any talk of patriarchal blessings at church.  
 

Do you look at/use yours?  It’s been a long time since I looked at mine.  Mine refers to the idea that self esteem is not a quality of the Celestial Kingdom- I’ve always wondered about that. Wonder if it’s a type-o.  
 

I used mine all the time as a young adult.  I think I saw it more as a literal directive and future reader.  

We hear about it at ward and / or stake levels at least once a year. 

I do look at mine periodically, maybe once a year.

I think it's a mishearing from the transcriptionist -- hellish steam is not a quality of the celestial kingdom.

[InCognitus]

4 minutes ago, CV75 said:

I think it's a mishearing from the transcriptionist -- hellish steam is not a quality of the celestial kingdom.

 

Or maybe a selfish dream?  Shell fish steamed?

[bluebell]

2 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

It seems like it’s been such a long time since I have heard any talk of patriarchal blessings at church.  
 

Do you look at/use yours?  It’s been a long time since I looked at mine.  Mine refers to the idea that self esteem is not a quality of the Celestial Kingdom- I’ve always wondered about that. Wonder if it’s a type-o.  
 

I used mine all the time as a young adult.  I think I saw it more as a literal directive and future reader.  

I think two conferences ago they had two separate speakers speak on the topic.  But I can't think of the last time i've heard it in sacrament meeting.  

I read mine often, and my husband's too since our lives are entwined.  I know I read his more than he does.  Mine is very short though (like four short paragraphs, not even a full front side of paper) and very direct but also a little confusing so I'm often trying to figure it out.  

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, InCognitus said:

I haven't read mine as often now as I did when I was a young adult, but when I read it now I get a completely different perspective on some of the things said in it and even recognize some fulfillment of blessings made in it (and the reason for some of the warnings).  It's like re-reading scripture every year in Come Follow Me (or prior programs).  Yeah, I read it before, but maybe this year I get something new from it and find new ways to apply it.

Same.  Some things that seemed very obvious when I was younger now mean something completely different to me.  And some of it made less sense until I was in or had been in the situation that it could be applied to.  Like how sometimes directions that someone gives you make no sense until you are out driving the route and then you finally figure out what they were talking about.

[bluebell]

31 minutes ago, BlueDreams said:

I think of it as more of a liahona. It's as directive as much as I've been willing to be directed. And it changes in significance as my own context has changed. 

 

With luv,

BD 

I was listening to the Follow Him podcast for Hebrews the last couple of weeks and the "scholar" Dr. Philip Allred said something about scripture and revelation that I had never considered before but I thought was really cool.  He said--

Quote

 

"I feel impressed to start with an experience I
had as a missionary in Japan when then Elder Oaks was at a
conference.

Elder Oaks stood and was addressing the missionaries, and this I
believe was in Ibaraki, Japan. He was asking us about our
scripture study and he says, "You ever been reading the
scriptures and you found yourself kind of zoned out like you
maybe even turned the page, but you come to and you realize
you have no idea what you just read?" We're all sitting there
going, "Oh, I think that happened this morning."

I was really intrigued because he says, "What do you do when
that happens?" You've zoned out and you don't know what you
just read. Some enterprising Elder raised his hand and, "I go
back, Elder Oaks. I make sure I found where I last remember
reading." And I figured, "Oh, okay." Elder Oaks blew my mind
when he said, "Please don't do that." Wasn't it important what
we were reading? And then he proceeded to share this, which
has just literally changed my approach to scripture.

He said, "The scriptures are a medium to revelation. They're like
a portal to the Spirit. Instead of going back over the black and
white words on the page, why don't you go back over the
frames of your mind? What was it that you were thinking
about?" 

I love what [Elder Oaks] says in this unpublished devotional that he
gave at the Salt Lake and Davis Counties seminaries but is
published in the scripture study, the Power of the Word Teacher
Manual. He says, "We have continuing revelation in our church
because the scriptures do not have a specific answer to every
possible question. We say that the scriptures contain the
answers to every question because the scriptures can lead us to
every answer. They, the scriptures will put us in a position
where we can obtain inspiration to answer any doctrinal or
personal question whether or not that question directly
concerns the subject we're studying in the scriptures."

Then he said, "This is a grand truth not understood by many. Often in that thought
process chain will be an invitation of the Holy Ghost to be on
the errand of the Lord. You'll usually have been thinking about
someone in your life. You can reach out to them or some
problem you're working over and now comes some inspiration
about what to do.”

 

I would imagine it works the same way with our own personal patriarchal blessings.  

Edited December 11, 2023 by bluebell

[Malc]

As an active, believing member (hard to imagine now) I received two blessings.

I have no memory at all of the first. It is completely lost, along with those of several other members, because the Stake Patriarch became inactive and did not give either the tape recordings or the transcripts to the church.

The second is full of strange (to me) imagery. Afterwards the patriarch told me that he had never given such a blessing before, nor had he ever heard of one. He also told me that I should not allow any stake patriarch, including himself, to give my sons their blessings: I was to do that myself. (The stake president disputed the instruction, and told me that I was not to do so.)

Here's a sample:

Quote

Thou art like a wanderer in the high mountain forests and thou walkest a 
straightforward path, for thou hast the ability to see directly ahead;  
however the mountain paths around the crevices of the high mountains are 
curvy.  Thou art able to proceed directly by building hanging bridges over the 
crevices and bends of the mountain sides and thy direction thus remains 
direct.

Perhaps I should have started an alpine construction company.

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, Malc said:

As an active, believing member (hard to imagine now) I received two blessings.

I have no memory at all of the first. It is completely lost, along with those of several other members, because the Stake Patriarch became inactive and did not give either the tape recordings or the transcripts to the church.

The second is full of strange (to me) imagery. Afterwards the patriarch told me that he had never given such a blessing before, nor had he ever heard of one. He also told me that I should not allow any stake patriarch, including himself, to give my sons their blessings: I was to do that myself. (The stake president disputed the instruction, and told me that I was not to do so.)

Here's a sample:

Perhaps I should have started an alpine construction company.

The use of the scriptural "thou" is interesting.  I wonder if that happens very often.

[SkyRock]

Mine is 4 pages long with lots of detail, promises and warnings.   I received it almost 40 years ago. 

I read mine often.  Some things are very much spot on.  It used to give me great guidance and comfort and perspective.

A few years ago I went through it and listed out the promises and examined which had been fulfilled and which were completely off with no expectation of being fulfilled.

There were over 30 promises not fulfilled and likely never will be in this life.  Some things are the opposite of the promises.  Maybe one day, but the promises sure have not happened and I have almost zero hope that they will.

Having pondered on this for a very long time,  I have often wondered if I just failed in some way and lost the blessing.  I don't believe that is so.   Another possibility is that the patriarch was not inspired.  Or might come to pass in my old age. 

I don't read it as often as I used to read it.  Now it just makes me sad.  

I tend to just accept that my blessing is a giant test of patience.  I wish it had been 3 paragraphs.....

 

[Malc]

2 hours ago, bluebell said:

The use of the scriptural "thou" is interesting.  I wonder if that happens very often.

He was totally consistent in my blessing - including the correct verb endings for the 2nd person familiar. (one of my many pet peeves is the failure to use correct endings - it really grates.)

[MiserereNobis]

How does fallibility work with patriarchal blessings? How much of a blessing is from God and how much from man? 

To me, a patriarchal blessing seems much more of a flashpoint for this issue than the prophet. The latter makes generalized pronouncements. The former gives a once in a lifetime pronouncement to a specific individual. 

What if he’s wrong and the individual spends their whole life contemplating something they believe is from God to them but just isn’t?

[The Nehor]

I don’t read mine much anymore. Too depressing.

 

[manol]

For @Malc:

 

[Malc]

27 minutes ago, manol said:

For @Malc:

 

Wow! Thanks, @manol

[BlueDreams]

11 hours ago, MiserereNobis said:

How does fallibility work with patriarchal blessings? How much of a blessing is from God and how much from man? 

To me, a patriarchal blessing seems much more of a flashpoint for this issue than the prophet. The latter makes generalized pronouncements. The former gives a once in a lifetime pronouncement to a specific individual. 

What if he’s wrong and the individual spends their whole life contemplating something they believe is from God to them but just isn’t?

I'm not sure how others manage theirs, but on this I assume its both. It's a blessing from God filtered with the words and assumptions of the person giving it. You can't really separate the two. For me I assume the gist is correct while the exact words may not be. My Patriarch edited the blessing before I received it, softening up a very very specific pronouncement so that it was not so strongly worded. I often wonder why he did. Was it because he felt prompted to so that I didn't hyper focus on it? Or was it because he was a little unconfident about saying what he did? I'll never know and both could be true. 

I'll give a tangential example that's guided me on this. When I was a missionary I had a strong blessing in which I came to know my children. One of them was so strongly impressed and would stick with me so hard that I drew her and would later paint her. It wasn't perfect (no painting is), I wasn't certain about her eye color, and I was influenced in how I portrayed her by the guy I was interested in (though part of that was because I swore she kinda looked like him to me...turns out her real dad would have a few similar features...so I was only kinda wrong  ). But the experience was still really important in finding my husband and experiencing her in different ways at difficult moments in my 20's. It's also made me more patient now that she's here and has been her own little package of challenge. I now have that painting on my wall to remind me that blessings can be miraculous and true in aggregate...while still not getting every last detail correct. I don't want to lose the overall good for the parts that turned out to be wrong or off.

I also had a mission companion who told me about her interesting relationship with her blessing after we visited the local patriarch who mentioned that blessings can sometimes be harder or easier to give depending on the preparation of the recipient. She had gotten it mainly out of familial expectations, noted that she wasn't in the right headspace for it, didn't experience much while getting it, and didn't find it of much use after at first. But as her heart changed over the years and she became more converted, the significance and blessing changed for her to hold more meaning and significance.  

God speaks to us and we imperfectly understand it based on where we're at, what we know, and how much we are ready to give/receive it.  I assume sometimes Patriarchs are pretty spot on/certain and at other points trying to strain something together through revelatory mud. That's been my experience with revelation and we're told that the process/experience isn't all that different for others in differing callings.     

 

With luv,

BD

[DispensatorMysteriorum]

15 hours ago, Malc said:

As an active, believing member (hard to imagine now) I received two blessings.

I have no memory at all of the first. It is completely lost, along with those of several other members, because the Stake Patriarch became inactive and did not give either the tape recordings or the transcripts to the church.

The second is full of strange (to me) imagery. Afterwards the patriarch told me that he had never given such a blessing before, nor had he ever heard of one. He also told me that I should not allow any stake patriarch, including himself, to give my sons their blessings: I was to do that myself. (The stake president disputed the instruction, and told me that I was not to do so.)

Here's a sample:

Perhaps I should have started an alpine construction company.

This is really bizarre. 

[Tacenda]

13 hours ago, MiserereNobis said:

How does fallibility work with patriarchal blessings? How much of a blessing is from God and how much from man? 

To me, a patriarchal blessing seems much more of a flashpoint for this issue than the prophet. The latter makes generalized pronouncements. The former gives a once in a lifetime pronouncement to a specific individual. 

What if he’s wrong and the individual spends their whole life contemplating something they believe is from God to them but just isn’t?

That's the scary harmful aspect of these blessings, human error.

[bluebell]

20 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

That's the scary harmful aspect of these blessings, human error.

I think it’s like scripture. There’s a lot of scripture that can be used to justify bad behavior, but if we are reading it with the spirit and interpreting it through the teachings of other scriptures and prophetic counsel, I think that can greatly reduce, and maybe even negate, the chances of scripture harming us or us using scripture to harm others.

I think patriarchal blessings operate in a similar manner. They can be confusing, and frustrating, and probably even upsetting, but when studied with the influence of the spirit, I don’t think they are going to be harmful, even though they are fallible.

[Tacenda]

56 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I think it’s like scripture. There’s a lot of scripture that can be used to justify bad behavior, but if we are reading it with the spirit and interpreting it through the teachings of other scriptures and prophetic counsel, I think that can greatly reduce, and maybe even negate, the chances of scripture harming us or us using scripture to harm others.

I think patriarchal blessings operate in a similar manner. They can be confusing, and frustrating, and probably even upsetting, but when studied with the influence of the spirit, I don’t think they are going to be harmful, even though they are fallible.

I recently watch At Last She Said It and the topic was Patriarchal Blessings. At the end of the podcast, they have phone in callers that leave a message about the particular podcast at the time. In it, if you care to, you will hear the harms that some had, but all weren't negative. 

I received mine in my thirties, it was short and sweet and I really liked it.

[bluebell]

33 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

I recently watch At Last She Said It and the topic was Patriarchal Blessings. At the end of the podcast, they have phone in callers that leave a message about the particular podcast at the time. In it, if you care to, you will hear the harms that some had, but all weren't negative. 

I received mine in my thirties, it was short and sweet and I really liked it.

I’m not going to listen to it, but could you share any examples if you remember?

[Malc]

3 hours ago, DispensatorMysteriorum said:

This is really bizarre. 

Do you mean the extract from my blessing, or the patriarch's instruction to me, or the stake pres. contradicting the patriarch - 

or all of the above?

[Diamondhands69]

My blessing was fairly benign. Lots of basic standard stuff in it. Go on mission, marry a righteous handmaiden etc.. really very boring.
 

 I read it again a couple years ago after not seeing it for maybe 30 yrs or so ( I lost track of it) and still nothing stands out except one comment. 
 

it said I would be persecuted by others because of my integrity.   Ok?!  What? 
 

only thing I could look back on in my life was the family and ward leadership war waged against me to get me to go on a mission. I was very open about not having a testimony and if I ever bore it to an investigator it would be a lie coming from me. I didn’t want to go and lie to people just to make everyone happy. I was basically ordered to go and do it anyway even if I felt I was lying. 

I have no idea if that is what that part of the blessing was referring to. That is the only thing in my memory I feel I was “persecuted” for. Kinda crazy 

the rest of it? Yea meh. 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Diamondhands69

[BRMC]

On 12/11/2023 at 4:04 PM, MustardSeed said:

It seems like it’s been such a long time since I have heard any talk of patriarchal blessings at church.  
 

Do you look at/use yours?  It’s been a long time since I looked at mine.  Mine refers to the idea that self esteem is not a quality of the Celestial Kingdom- I’ve always wondered about that. Wonder if it’s a type-o.  
 

I used mine all the time as a young adult.  I think I saw it more as a literal directive and future reader.  

They are discussed frequently in my ward.  We just had a youth discussion last week about it, too.