Have you ever given a sincere compliment to someone who knows how to receive it? Receiving well allows individuals on both sides of the exchange to be lifted, encouraged & edified. In this week’s lesson, we read of the Lord’s invitations to receive Him, His Father, power, priesthood & kingdom; His greatest gifts. None of this is required of us… it is offered, and ours to choose to RECEIVE.
President Nelson offers us counsel how we might do that, “The future is bright for God’s covenant-keeping people. The Lord will increasingly call upon His servants who worthily hold the priesthood to bless, comfort, and strengthen mankind and to help prepare the world and its people for His Second Coming. It behooves each of us to measure up to the sacred ordination we have received.”
“It is not enough to merely arrive on earth, receive a mortal body, and live here for a lifetime. To make our time here meaningful, we must live and experience the God-ordained purposes of mortality—fully, completely, and wholeheartedly—rather than becoming distracted by things that are interesting, comfortable, and convenient.” (Elder Pieper, 2016)
Receiving the greatest of gifts that our Heavenly Father offers has everything to do with marriage and family. Eternal marriage and bearing and raising children help us develop our capacity to become like God and ultimately receive all that He wants to give us. For those who desire these gifts, we are assured, “Those who do not marry or those who cannot have children are not excluded from the eternal blessings they seek but which, for now, remain beyond their reach. We do not always know how or when blessings will present themselves, but the promise of eternal increase will not be denied any faithful individual who makes and keeps sacred covenants.”(President Boyd K. Packer Ensign, May 2014)
To receive is to admit, allow, welcome and embrace. “… He that receiveth me receiveth my Father; And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be giveth unto him.” (D&C 84:37-38)