A woman confided in me that nothing in the patriarchal blessing she received 50 years ago has come to pass, and that she is now too old for those promises to take place.  Her patriarchal blessing stated that she would be surrounded by a righteous family, and that is not at all the case.

She served a mission as a young person, married a returned missionary in the temple, had two children, divorced, raised the two children as a single parent for eight years, and then remarried a good and righteous man to whom she has been happily sealed for 27 years.  The two children, however, have abandoned the Church, neither has married nor will marry, and the woman says she will never be a grandmother.  Therefore, she says, nothing in her patriarchal blessing has come to pass.

As a patriarch, I find myself assuring people that the promises made in their blessings will all come to pass, conditioned upon their faithfulness in seeking the blessings.  I also frequently tell them that the promises are not limited to this world only.

I asked myself, “What about this woman?  What happened?”  The answer is this:

She married incorrectly the first time.  (She knew it at the time).  The children that she would have had, went to the man she would otherwise have married.  She was given two less-valiant, less-committed spirits to care for and to raise.  Her husband and both children made other choices over which she had no power.  However, she herself remained faithful through all the vicissitudes of her life.  She has blessed countless people.  She has served faithfully in many important callings.  She has worked upon, developed, and magnified incredible talents.  She possesses a strong testimony of her Savior and of the restored gospel, shares it readily, and is a powerful teacher.  She has been blessed with an eternal marriage to a wonderful, similarly-gifted man who possesses a testimony equal to hers.  Together they have a magnificent future.

Because of incorrect choices that they both made in their original marriage partners, the Lord had to make adjustments in the plan of their mortal trajectories.  Because of their faithfulness they have been blessed with an adjusted plan that will bring them a fulness of joy, the reception of every blessing reserved for the faithful, and even a fulfillment of the promises made in their patriarchal blessings.  That fulfillment will take place on the other side of the veil where they will have a posterity as numerous as the stars in heaven.

Because of our agency and some choices that we make, the plan for our mortal lives is not a straight path.  We, ourselves, have to make adjustments; and based upon those adjustments, the Lord puts in place alternative ways that are designed to position us to receive all of the blessings that He so much desires to give us.

This woman's mortal life has not gone as she had hoped and wanted, but her future is glorious.  She is on the path, and is in line to be heir to all that the Father has.  She recognizes how blessed she is.

I have not read her patriarchal blessing; but I know that she has not failed, and I suspect that the promises made in her blessing will still all come to pass.