The Farm and Blessings Tied to Obedience

The last day at the cabin is always a bit of a bummer. Usually we still want some sort of adventure so it still actually feels like part of the trip, but the packing and cleaning up looms in front of us. And on the Monday after Easter, there didn't seem to be a lot left to do. It was cold for the beach (and we knew everyone would get sandy and wet if we attempted a walk along the water), and our Limber Pine Trail was still too covered in snow. So, instead of staying at the cabin, we had a leisurely morning, enjoyed our Monday phone call with Abe, packed and cleaned, then headed for the farm to continue our adventuring (stopping to pick up pizza, donut holes and grapes along the way). (Daisy isn't pictured because she had to head back to Provo a day early. And Goldie is only rarely pictured ... because that's just the way she is.)

It was windy. And at one point half our pizza and donuts were blown into the weeds and dirt. But we all piled on 4-wheelers and drove the usual loops. Then Mike opened the gate that lead into the field a neighbor rents to keep cows and we drove over to the trough to see the goldfish (and Jesse drove through several very fresh piles of cow manure ...). 

Everyone always seems happy at the farm.

Someday, before way too long, we hope to possibly be able to arrange things in order to live up there. It's complicated and at times it seems like it will never work. And maybe it won't. But through all the years of our marriage, whenever Mike would mention it, I'd smile and nod while inwardly thinking, "Nah. It'll never happen." (And hoping it wouldn't.) But something has shifted in me the last three years. It feels peaceful when I am there. And if it ever does work, ... then off we'll all go. 

In the meantime, these occasional stops up there are fun and always result in some great photos! :)

This has nothing to do with the farm, but while I'm here (meaning: here -- on my blog), I recently read this experience from Elder Yoon Hwan Choi:

While still serving in the Seattle mission, I received a phone call from my oldest son, Sunbeam, who is a pianist. He said he would have the privilege of performing at Carnegie Hall in New York because he won an international competition. We were so happy and very thrilled for him. However, that evening, while praying with gratitude, my wife recognized that we could not join him for his performance and said to Heavenly Father something like this: “Heavenly Father, I am grateful for the blessing Thou hast given to Sunbeam. By the way, I am sorry that I cannot go there. I could have gone if Thou had given this blessing either before or after this mission. I am not complaining, but I have a little feeling of sorry.”

As soon as she finished this prayer, she heard a clear voice: “Because you cannot go, your son has been given this privilege. Would you rather trade?”

I've thought often about the blessings connected to our obedience. And how interesting it is that there are very specific blessings tied to our righteous choices that are often not the things we would suspect might be related at all. (For example, Neal Anderson once share a story about a time when some great blessing came into his life. As he prayed to thank the Lord, he heard a voice, completely unexpected, come into his mind and tell him that this blessing had come because of his kind treatment of a mission companion years earlier!) 

I've joked with a few loved ones that it would be fun to see a chart showing actions and obedience and the unexpected but specific blessings tied to it. And I find it fascinating when the Spirit, on occasion, lets us know just what certain blessings were tied to. For example, I don't think my oldest sister would mind my sharing that she had a fear of her children ever dying early. When she adopted her autistic son from Bulgaria, she felt the Spirit tell her that a blessing tied to that choice was that her children would be protected from early death. 

I've had one or two experiences like that of my own. One was a certainty that came after my enormous struggle with fear and lacking faith to bring a tenth child to our home (which of course seems utterly ridiculous now that she is here, and, consumed with the overwhelming love I have for her, I nearly burst every moment praying thanks to the Lord for letting me know I should have her). Still, when I had battled my overwhelming fears and had become pregnant with her, I had a strong feeling that my willingness to have her had somehow claimed desired blessings for Abe for his mission. Obviously I don't know completely what those were, but the feeling was confirmed when his call arrived the same week Starling was born and he stood in the circle to bless her the same week he left on his mission. 

My point in all of that is simply that I have been struck recently at how often the blessings we receive for following the Lord -- living righteously, serving others, and acting as guided by The Spirit -- come as blessings to those we love! Isn't that amazing? I don't know. It just ... it's marvelous and miraculous and beautiful to me. That by our using our own agency to be obedient we can bless not only ourselves, but those whose welfare often matters to us more than our own. Obviously we don't obey on conditions that the Lord grant us blessings. We follow Him because we love Him and want his will to prevail in our lives. And, even trusting that blessings are tied to obedience, we still can't pick and choose how or when or in what way those blessings come. But I love knowing that specific ties do exist. And I think it is beautiful to know that very often those blessings come upon the heads of those we plead for. It also humbles me a little as I wonder more fully over the blessings I have received due to the obedience and goodness of my parents and grandparents. 

Anyway, enough of that. And back to the farm. It was a good way to end our get-a-way weekend. The End.