(Materials needed:  3 pictures and a sling).

(Display Journey to Bethlehem by Joseph Brickey).

I would like you to study this picture.  Look at the faces.  What emotions do you see?  What thoughts are going through their minds?  (Allow some responses).

How old is the girl?  (16?).

How old is the man?  (Older).

Who are they?  (Mary and Joseph).

What is their status in life?  (Common, ordinary people).

Who is ruling their country?  (Romans).

If the Romans hadn’t been there, and the Jews were still ruling themselves, who would have been the rightful king?  (Joseph).

Who would become the rightful king after him?  (His first son).

Does anyone in the picture really have any idea what is going on?

How do they know what little they do know?  (An angel visited both).

Why were they chosen?  (Their purity.  Their ability to listen.  Foreordination).

What is his role?  (Protector, teacher, trainer)  (Show picture of Joseph teaching Jesus carpentry).

What is her role?  (Nurturer, teacher, trainer).  Show picture of Mary teaching Jesus to pray).

Are they any different from you?  You’re common, ordinary people, too.  Have you been foreordained to any purpose?  Do you have any idea what is going on, either?  How are you going to insure that you fulfill the role you were sent here to fill?  How are you going to find out what that role is?  Would Mary and Joseph have been chosen to fulfill their roles if they hadn’t had control of themselves and hadn’t been trying to do their best?

You have an advantage Mary and Joseph didn’t have.  You have the opportunity to receive a patriarchal blessing.  A patriarchal blessing outlines your life possibilities.  I wonder what Mary’s and Jospeh’s patriarchal blessings might have said?

Another purpose of a patriarchal blessing is to declare your lineage in the House of Israel.  Mary and Joseph both already knew theirs.  They were both Jews from the tribe of Judah.  Your blessings will most likely (but not necessarily) declare that you are from the tribe of Ephraim.

In the latter days, all of the other tribes, including Judah, will have to come to Ephraim to receive their blessings.  Ephraim will have the fulness of the gospel, additional scripture, prophets, the Priesthood, the ancient ordinances and covenants, temples, and the sealing power.  The other tribes will have to come to Ephraim to get access to the knowledge that these additional scriptures will bring.  They will have to come to Ephraim to get their Priesthood and ordinances and covenants and revelation and baptisms and gift of the Holy Ghost and sealings and the ability to save their ancestors by receiving all of these same things vicariously for their dead.

And what is your role in all of that?  You’re Ephraim.  You were foreordained and reserved to come to earth at this late time to be a part of this great gathering of Israel.  President Nelson says that this is the greatest work and undertaking the world has ever known.  Ephraim has a huge responsibility, and you get to be part of it.  You’re the missionaries and the fathers and the mothers and the youth leaders and Relief Society and Priesthood leaders that will prepare the world for the Lord’s Second Coming.

It’s an exciting time and an exciting work, and you get to be an integral part of it.

Mary and Joseph didn’t know what they were getting into.  Neither do you.  All you have to do is be good.  Keep the commandments.  Make and keep covenants.  Get your education.  Be good, and the Lord can make you into anything that He wants you to be.  If you’re being good He will lead you to your Bethlehem and your Garden of Gethsemane.  He’ll give you the special children that He has reserved for you to be the parent of.  One of those children that you are supposed to teach, train, and nuture may be His future prophet or president or bishop or young women leader who will the the means of saving and directing a group of young women who will be the mothers of another army of stripling warriors who will save the nation.

A patriarchal blessing might give you some indications of your life possibilities.  A patriarchal blessing is not a crystal ball, and it is not fortune telling; but it might indicate that a mission or marriage or parenthood or education is in your future.  Then again it might not.  My own patriarchal blessing never once uses the word “mission.”  Neither does my wife’s.  Yet we recently served one in the South Seas island nation of Vanuatu.

Some people’s patriarchal blessings indicate that they’ll be married in the temple and have children, but that person dies before those things come to pass.  Patriarchal blessings point out eternal possibilities, and are not restricted to this life only.  That person who died young without the opportunity to marry or have children will have both opportunities if he or she lives for it.

Patriarchal blessings apply to both sides of the veil.  Patriarchal blessings are contingent upon one’s worthiness.  You can have any blessing that you’re willing to live for.  Joseph Smith, senior, the Prophet’s father, was the first Church patriarch.  He reputedly said after giving a blessing, “Now if you don’t think that I gave you the blessings you wanted, you go home and write out the blessing that you think you should have received and bring it back to me, and I’ll sign it.  You can have any blessing you’re willing to live for.”

Your patriarchal blessing is a sacred document.  It shouldn’t be shared with anyone other than close family members.  Patriarchal blessings shouldn’t be compared.  You don’t read them in sacrament meeting.  You should read yours often, and let it be a guide to your life.

The best time to receive your patriarchal blessing is when you’re young.  It should be when you’re mature enough to understand things.  It should be when you have a desire to have it.  It should be before you have to make the big decisions in life like mission, marriage, educaton, and vocation.  My personal opinion is that about age 15 is perfect.  Some get it earlier, and some later.  President Hinckley got his at age 11, because his father had him do it.  That’s probably too early.  I know a bishop who had been a member of the Church all his life, but waited until his 30s.  That’s late.

Now let’s talk about this boy in the picture.  Who else do you know in the scriptures who was a shepherd boy?  (David).

David was probably a little older than the boy in this picture, but not much.  I’d guess David was a teenager when he went out to meet Goliath.  What do you know about David?  ( Youngest of eight brothers, son of Jesse).

How did he pass his time while watching the sheep?  (Practiced becoming a marksman with his sling).

How good did he get?  Did he become a master marksman with one day’s practice?  Did he become a master marksman with 10,000 tries?  Were his arm muscles ever sore from all the practice?

What talent would you like to develop?  How hard are you willing to work to develop that talent?  They say that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at anything.  Considering that there are 8,760 hours in a year, 10,000 hours of practice is going to take a long time.  (For instance, if eating a meal takes 15 minutes, and if you eat three meals per day and never miss one, you won’t have spent 10,000 hours eating until you’re age 37).

David was a master marksman.  He had confidence in himself.  He knew what he could do.

He had faith in God, and knew that with God’s help he could do anything.

He also had a positive attitude.  When his brothers and the rest of his countrymen saw the giant, they said, “Wow, with a guy that big, there’s no way we can win.”

When David saw the giant, he thought, “Wow, with a target that big, I can’t miss!”

David could have used the king’s armor and sword.  They were heavy and didn’t fit, so he said, “Forget that, I can’t use these.  I’ll do this my own way.”

He went to the brook and selected five stones.  He needed only one.  The giant taunted him and invited him to come up close.  David had no intention of getting close to evil where he could be harmed.  He kept his distance from evil just as we should.  He wasn’t scared.  He knew what he was capable of doing.  He ran to meet the giant.  When he judged the range to be perfect, he let the stone fly from his sling.  The stone penetrated the giant’s forehead.  The giant fell dead.  To signal to both armies that he was the victor, David ran up and decapitated the giant with the giant’s own sword.

The army of Israel gave a shout and swarmed toward the Philistines.  The Philistines, who had been so confident a moment before, turned tail and ran.  It wa a complete route.  It was accomplished by a common, ordinary shepherd boy whose heart was pure.

Look again at the shepherd boy in the picture.  I’d like to think this was David.  This boy was born centuries too late, but this boy (to my mind) should have been painted with a sling in his hand.  If we pretend this was David, did he know what was going on any more than Mary and Joseph did?  Did he know that he was destined to save the nation?  Did he know that he was going to be king?  Did he know that he would be the ancestor of both Mary and Joseph, and, therefore, of Jesus Christ?  Did he consider himself to be anything but a common, ordinary boy?  Was he special?

Did Mary consider herself anything but a common, ordinary girl?  Was she special?

Do you consider yourself to be anything but a common, ordinary boy or girl?  Are you special?

Let me tell you:  You are!  Because of your faithfulness in the pre-earth existence you were reserved to come to earth in the lattter times when things would be most difficult, and when the greatest work ever undertaken would be taking place.  You’re to help gather Israel in preparation for the Lord’s Second Coming.  You have a special work to do.

You have no idea who you are or what you’re to accomplish.  You’re no more aware than any of these people about whom we’ve been talking.  The work you’ve been sent to do is great.  According to Doctrine and Covenants 76:56 the end result will be that you’re going to be “priests and kings” priestesses and queens.

And you didn’t think you were special!  Make no mistake about it:  what you do matters.  The destiny of millions of people depends upon what you do.  And I’m not exagerating.

Remember Rebekah in the Old Testament?  She got her patriarchal blessing as she was leaving home to marry a man she’d never met.  “And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her ... be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.”  (Genesis 24:60).

She was going off to marry Isaac.  His own blessing said, “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven ... and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”  (Genesis 26:4)

Rebekah was told that she would have thousands of millions of descendants.  A thousand million is one billion.  Thousands of millions means at least two billion.

Rebekah and Isaac were married 20 years and had no children.  Were their patriarchal blessings faulty?

Not on your life!  They were living faithfully, so the blessings would assuredly come to pass.  Things happen in the Lord’s timing.  Rebekah eventually became pregnant in her late 30s and had twins—Esau and Jacob.

I estimated when Rebekah lived and made calculations about how numerous the posterity would be that emanated from those twins.  I came up with something over two billion.  Rebekah’s and Isaac’s blessings stand fulfilled.  They were your literal ancestors, and their blessings were your blessings.  If you are faithful, then your seed is also to become as numerous as the stars in heaven or the sands upon the seashore.

Does it matter what you do?

Does it ever!

Where are Isaac and Rebekah today, and what is their condition?  Doctrine and Covenants 132:37 says that “... Isaac (and Rebekah) ... did none other things than that which they were commanded; and because they did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are gods.”

Keep the commandments.  Have faith.  you were sent here for special purposes.  You’re ignorant about what those purposes are; but if you prepare yourselves, and keep yourselves clean, then God can make you into anything He wants you to be.  He’ll put you where you need to be.  He’ll put certain people into your lives both to help you and whom you are to help.  Somewhere He’s preparing a companion for you right now.  He has children in reserve for you.  He has a job for you to do.  All of these blessings will be yours if you live for them.

All you have to do is to be good, prepare, and remember that you’re special.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, and don’t let anyone spoil your goodness or your belief in your specialness.  Keep repenting.  You’re all on the covenant path.

You don’t know who you are yet or what special things the Lord has in mind for you any more than Mary or Joseph or David or Isaac or Rebekah knew what was in store for them as they were on their way to Bethlehem, or were herding their sheep, or were going off to be married.  They were all common, ordinary people and as clueless as you are—but they were special in God’s eyes, and so are you!