When should I get my patriarchal blessing?
by Nancy Fuller / ga08302006


 

It all depends on the spiritual maturity of the person receiving the blessing, there is no timetable. Some people get them while they are still young, and others wait until they are much older. My grandmother received hers at the age of 86, while I got mine at the age of 14.

Let me give my two-cents worth here.

Please remember the patriarchal blessing is not the same as fortune telling. Instead it is a telling of your possibilities, that depend on your faithfulness for fulfillment. And everyone has positive possibilities, no one is exempt.

A blessing won't tell you everything that you are going to do in life, rather it will just give the highlights. However the more you read it the more you will feel its guiding power in your life. I have my blessing memorized and I think of it often.

Some things that are mentioned such as your spiritual gifts, you will still need to work at to develop. Think of it more as the Lord has given you the seed, now you need to plant it and water it to see it grow.

Remember that the blessing will extend clear into the Eternities and may not all be fulfilled in this life, then again they might.

Some things will be fulfilled over and over again in very different ways. Some things you will think you know for sure what it means, but when it is finally fulfilled it is entirely different. I am thinking of when President Hinckley told us that his blessing said that he would stand before kings (or something to that effect). He thought at one time that his mission at the age of 19 was the fulfillment of the promise. Little did he know what was in store for him.

Some people are frightened to get them, because they have heard urban legends that are simply not true. They have heard stories where the patriarch condemned them, or similar things. It is interesting in those stories the people who tell the stories can never can tell you the exact person or patriarch who that happened to. That is probably a clue that it has never happened.

Everybody has the possibility to go back to live with our Father in Heaven. And that is what a blessing will tell you, now we still have to work for it, but the patriarch will not tell anyone it is too late to repent, or they shouldn't get a blessing etc. As long as we are on this earth, it is never to late to repent. Every time a person comes to the Lord, the Lord will not turn them away. That is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyone who tells you otherwise simply does not have a testimony of Christ.

The patriarch might give warnings however. But those warnings will be similar to warnings we here all the time. Warning to avoid evil. To not give into peer pressure etc. etc.

Patriarchal blessings are not to be shared with others. No one, but you, not even the Patriarch can interpret them for you. If yours is not like other people's blessings that doesn't mean the Lord loves you less, or more, it is just different. There were times, especially when I was younger that I did share my blessing with others, and I could tell after I did that the spirit did not approve, and the advice that the people who read the blessing gave me was simply off the mark.

Now if you feel like you understand all that, then you are most probably ready to receive the blessing.

I would recommend getting some church literature and reading up on Patriarchal blessings prior to going. Your bishop and patriarch might also have some suggestions.

Over the years, I have kept a notebook and I put one sentence from my blessing per page in the notebook. As I read the scriptures or heard thoughts from the brethren in Salt Lake, that pertained to that sentence, I would put the reference to that on the page. This past year, I reread everyone of those references and it really gave me a deeper meaning to what my patriarchal blessing means.

I would also reread Genesis where Jacob gave his sons blessings. That will give you a feel of what a blessing is. Those blessings given to his sons anciently are still being fulfilled by their progenitors today. Talk about going on into Eternity.

A patriarchal blessing is a wonderful gift and worth working for.