Last night my daughter had trouble sleeping. She went to bed, got up to go to the bathroom, went back to bed, got up to go to the bathroom, and back to bed, every five minutes, like a metronome. No real bladder works like that, so the Lovely One and I knew she was nervous and unsettled. We talked to her for awhile. Then I gave her a blessing.

I blessed her that she would have a good night’s sleep. We all felt a spirit of calm.

She then went to bed and promptly got up again to go to the bathroom. This time it wasn’t the bladder. Apparently the bladder had been a symptom–the onset of stomach flu had put pressure on it.

My wife set up a little pallet for her, close to the bathroom, in preparation for her passing an unquiet night.  And I spent a few unquiet minutes laying in bed wondering why my priesthood blessing had gone wrong.

A voice whispered that my daughter would be blessed for seeking and receiving blessings from her father, even if I got some of the words wrong.

It made me think of a General Conference talk I had just read. At the close of the April 1972 conference, President Joseph Fielding Smith gave a very short valedictory, probably because of ailing health. But it was sweet. He bore a short testimony and then blessed all those in attendance.

The blessings of Conference are very much the guidance and inspiration we receive from the prophets. But we are blessed in attending apart from the content. In a way, the content is necessary but it is not the point.

In the morning, I discovered that my daughter had slept soundly.

 

Other Posts from the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 1972 Conference


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