The Priesthood is Restored

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have truly blessed my life. What a wonderful thing it is to have Them in my life. I am grateful I live in a time that Our Heavenly Father has restored His Holy Priesthood to His children to act in His name for the salvation of His children.

Priesthood
The priesthood is the eternal power and authority of God. Through the priesthood God created and governs the heavens and the earth. Through this power He redeems and exalts His children, bringing to pass "the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). God gives priesthood authority to worthy male members of the Church so they can act in His name for the salvation of His children. Priesthood holders can be authorized to preach the gospel, administer the ordinances of salvation, and govern the kingdom of God on the earth.

My recent experience happened about a week ago. My three oldest kids had come back home after a 2 week "vacation" away from their mother and I. My oldest son had been extremely sick with allergies, but was better by the time he arrived home. The other two kids were just starting to become horribly sick. My second oldest son was running a temperature of 103.8 and my daughter was at 101.5. After consulting with a doctor in the family, he suggested we take our son to the Urgent Care because a temperature of 104 is extremely dangerous. As I was grabbing the keys to rush him there, he asked that I give him a Priesthood Blessing. For a second it didn't register, but later stopped me in my tracks. What great faith this young boy has in his Heavenly Father. My wife called a friend over to help administer the blessing, and we proceeded to give my son and daughter a blessing of healing from their Father in Heaven.

As the friend left, we decided to take the temperatures one last time. Our son's temperature had dropped to around 100 degrees, and our daughter's was around 99. A true miracle! We decided to monitor them the rest of the night, and their temperatures only lowered. By the following day, they were back to their healthy selves, with our daughter displaying only a stuffy nose.


My story is somewhat similar, but required more Humility from me.

Humility
To be humble is to recognize gratefully our dependence on the Lord—to understand that we have constant need for His support. Humility is an acknowledgment that our talents and abilities are gifts from God. It is not a sign of weakness, timidity, or fear; it is an indication that we know where our true strength lies. We can be both humble and fearless. We can be both humble and courageous.

My wife and I had taken our kids camping this past weekend. A couple days before leaving, I developed a severe pain in my neck. It was not going away, and I ended up taking a lot of pain medication. The first morning we were camping, it became unbearable and we decided to come home a day early. I was completely dead by the time we arrived home after the 3 hour drive. I took some pain medicine and Nyquil and slept for 11 hours. The following day I started to experience more severe symptoms, that I later learned (3 days later) resembled meningitis I could only manage to work a 1/2 day on Monday and Tuesday, before I had to come home and sleep and lay down to minimize the pain. My wife had mentioned since Sunday that I should call our home teachers to provide a Priesthood blessing. But unfortunately my pride didn't allow me to give in to that. I didn't want to believe that I couldn't beat this on my own. Yeah, I suffer from an extreme case of stubbornitis.

So finally on Tuesday night, I had had enough. After a long, and difficult internal struggle I asked my wife to make the call. An hour later these two worthy male members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived at our door, willing and able to give me a Priesthood Blessing. They laid their hands upon my head and gave me one of the best blessings I have had in a long time. I felt at peace. No, the pain did not miraculously disappear. But it did prompt me to ask that same family member who is a doctor, but lives out of state about my symptoms. He said those sound like meningitis (see the link in the above paragraph) and that I should get to the Urgent Care. I told him I would go there before I went to work the next day.

The next day I ended up going to the ER, because the Urgent Care was only open from 9am - 8pm (how strange is that?). While in the ER, they did almost every test possible. They drew my blood, gave me a CAT scan, chest x-rays and finally a dreaded Lumbar Puncture. Finally after 6 hours of laying on those uncomfortable hospital beds, the Dr. said all my results were negative. In fact, they couldn't find anything related to meningitis, or any other disease. I was shocked, but not really. It took me a couple minutes of trying to figure out what the problem was, I recalled the Priesthood Blessing the night before. I truly believe that I had a form of meningitis, and that my Heavenly Father cured me of it the night before.

I want to thank my Heavenly Father for His continued guidance and protection in my life. For the love and support He gives to me and my family. I am also grateful for the lessons He teaches me (Humility).