Blessing from a Living Prophet

Hello Family!

It is fitting this week that we review an excerpt from President Hinckley's final conference address for our quotation this week. This is the final paragraph of his final talk, The Stone Cut Out of the Mountain.

"I leave with you my testimony of the truth of these things, and I invoke the blessings of heaven upon you. May the windows of heaven be opened and blessings showered upon you as the Lord has promised. Never forget that this was His promise and that He has the power and the capacity to see that it is fulfilled. I so pray as I leave my blessing and love with you in the sacred name of our Redeemer, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen."

How wonderful it has been to have been led by a living prophet! And now, as President Hinckley has joined his lovely wife on the other side of the veil to await the resurrection, how wonderful it is that the Church is led by 14 living apostles - prophets, seers and revelators. How wonderful it will be, in the next few days, to see the mantle of leadership pass to the one whom the Lord has prepared and consecrated to be the next president of the Church.

Love,

Dad/Mark

Set a Gospel Example

Hello Family!

This week's quotation comes from Elder Holland's conference talk in April, 2003:

"Live the gospel as conspicuously as you can. Keep the covenants your children know you have made. Give priesthood blessings. And bear your testimony! Don’t just assume your children will somehow get the drift of your beliefs on their own. The prophet Nephi said near the end of his life that they had written their record of Christ and preserved their convictions regarding His gospel in order “to persuade our children … that our children may know … [and believe] the right way.”

"Nephi-like, might we ask ourselves what our children know? From us? Personally? Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our knees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to accept callings they did not seek in order to preserve a standard of righteousness they did not create? Do those children know that we love God with all our heart and that we long to see the face—and fall at the feet—of His Only Begotten Son? I pray that they know this."

Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Prayer for the Children,” Liahona, May 2003, 85–87

Please know that I have a testimony of the restored gospel. I know that it is true! Jesus does live and love us! We are so grateful for living apostles and prophets that teach us these divine truths.

Love,

Dad/Mark

Pure in Heart

This week's quotation is from Elder Dallin Oaks:

"The word most commonly used to describe the condition of the inner man is heart. Alma referred to the kind of conversion that led to the salvation of a people as "a mighty change . . . wrought in their hearts" (Alma 5:13). To be "pure in heart" is to achieve that condition in which motives, desires, and attitudes are acceptable to God and consistent with the eternal progress that is the ultimate destiny of his children."

("Pure in Heart," Dallin H. Oaks, Bookcraft, Inc., chapter 9)

Love,

Dad/Mark

Happiness is the object and design of our existence

This week's quotation is from Joseph Smith, as quoted by Joseph Fielding Smith.

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. . . .

"... [A]s God has designed our happiness—and the happiness of all His creatures, he never has—He never will institute an ordinance or give a commandment to His people that is not calculated in its nature to promote that happiness which He has designed, and which will not end in the greatest amount of good and glory to those who become the recipients of his law and ordinances."

(An essay recorded in the Journal History [HC5:134-35] Aug. 27, 1842) TPJS:255-56; DGSM:27

Love,

Dad/Mark

(originally emailed 30 Dec 2007)

Raising your children during these difficult times

Elder Quentin Cook in the last General Conference:

I know that many of you are concerned about raising your children during these difficult times and increasing their faith. When my wife and I were starting our family in the San Francisco Bay Area, we had that same concern. At a critical point our stake members were advised by Elder Harold B. Lee, then a member of the Twelve, that we could raise our families in righteousness if we would:

1. Follow the prophet.


2. Create the true spirit of the gospel in our hearts and homes.


3. Be a light to those among whom we live.


4. Focus on the ordinances and principles taught in the temple.

(See D&C 115:5; Harold B. Lee, “Your Light to Be a Standard unto the Nations,” Ensign, Aug. 1973, 3–4.)

As we followed this counsel, our faith increased and our fears decreased. I believe we can raise righteous children anywhere in the world if they are taught religious principles in the home.

I am sure as we follow the counsel from apostles of Christ, we can have the Spirit in our homes. Our homes will be safe havens - holy places where we might stand.

Love,

Dad/Mark

(originally emailed 23 Dec 2007)

Zion Family Introduction

On December 9, 2007, while visiting Heidi and her family in Beaverton, Oregon, I was studying the verse in Moses 7:18:

"And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them."

The key attributes of a Zion people that immediately came to mind are:

• Unity


• Obedience


• Service

I was directed by the Spirit that we should establish "Becoming a Zion Family" as a theme for our family during 2008, and that we should strive to build these qualities in our family. Since then, we have agreed during an extended family home evening to adopt this as the Dent-Dixon family theme for this coming year.

As one part of my contribution to this theme, I have begun to send out a weekly quotation from our leaders or from the scriptures pertaining to this subject. This blog will serve as a repository for these weekly emails and other thoughts I may be prompted to share on the subject.