Deepening Your Understanding of Your Patriarchal Blessing
When was the last time you read your patriarchal blessing?
In a world full of important decisions, your patriarchal blessing serves as a personal compass to help guide you through the challenges of mortality. As President Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018) said: “A patriarchal blessing is a revelation to the recipient … to protect, inspire, and motivate activity and righteousness. A patriarchal blessing literally contains chapters from your book of eternal possibilities.”1
Your patriarchal blessing is meant to be studied repeatedly throughout your life alongside the scriptures and words of the prophet, so if it’s been a while since you last read through yours, you might want to pull it out again. Here are some suggestions to help you better understand the importance of your patriarchal blessing and make it part of your everyday life.
1. Read and Ponder It Often
Frequently returning to your patriarchal blessing will help you remember its inspired words and realize how they relate to the different stages of your life. By rereading your blessing, you show Heavenly Father that you are willing to let Him guide you.
If you take the time to study and ponder the inspired words of your patriarchal blessing, you might find something new and powerful each time you read it!
2. Look for Inspired Counsel
As you study your patriarchal blessing, keep in mind any questions you might have. These questions can be on anything from where to attend school to whom to marry. While your blessing won’t lay out everything for you, it can help point you in a good direction. Make a list of the specific counsel you receive in your patriarchal blessing. Keep that list with your blessing so you can refer to it often and see how specific counsel in your patriarchal blessing has played a role in your life.
3. Learn about Your Lineage
Your patriarchal blessing tells you which of the twelve tribes of Israel you belong to. And as members of the house of Israel, we all have a responsibility to engage in the Lord’s work in the latter days. Regardless of our specific tribe, we are all of the lineage of Abraham, so we are all entitled to the blessings that come through the Abrahamic covenant. Study the promises in that covenant and how you can fulfill your responsibility to gather Israel.
4. Discover Gifts and Talents
Look for specific talents the Lord has blessed you with. Your blessing may not state these abilities directly, but as you study your blessing with the question of your gifts and talents in mind, you may learn more about yourself. Discovering your divine gifts will help you accomplish your mission in life.
Patriarchal blessings are sacred and personal. So it’s important to not compare the contents of your patriarchal blessing to those of others. As President Monson noted: “Your patriarchal blessing is yours and yours alone. It may be brief or lengthy, simple or profound. Length and language do not a patriarchal blessing make. It is the Spirit that conveys the true meaning.”2
5. Remember Your Divine Worth
Your patriarchal blessing is filled with personal direction from your Heavenly Father. Mark the words used in your blessing to describe your identity as a child of God. Keep a list of these attributes to see how they serve as reminders of your divine worth. As you look for the passages describing who you are, you will have a better understanding of how God sees you, and your testimony of your divine worth will increase.
6. Keep an Eternal Perspective
While your patriarchal blessing is a map to guide you through mortality, it is also a compass to direct you toward eternity. Keeping an eternal perspective when studying your blessing is key to understanding its significance and the truth that all promised blessings—whether received here on earth or in the next life—will be fulfilled. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declared, “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”3
By frequently reading your patriarchal blessing and treating it as a personal guide for your life, you will be able to face the challenges and decisions that lie ahead of you with confidence. Your knowledge of your identity as a child of heavenly parents will be strengthened, and you will have a better understanding of your mission here on earth.
More Ways to Ponder Your Patriarchal Blessing
Just as with studying the scriptures, you can try all sorts of approaches when it comes to studying and pondering your patriarchal blessing. Here are just a few ways:
- Pray and ask Heavenly Father to help you find and understand the truths you need to hear from your blessing.
- Journal about moments when promises in your patriarchal blessing have come to fruition or when you were blessed because you acted in faith and trusted in counsel offered in your blessing.
- Consider the specific words used in your blessing and look up their meanings to further your understanding.
- Request a digital copy of your blessing in your ChurchofJesusChrist.org account.
- Print out your patriarchal blessing. Highlight meaningful sections or take notes in the margins.
- Consider whether your blessing mentions specific promises that are tied to specific actions. Make goals to invest more time in doing these specific actions and take note of the positive changes you see.
Discover More
You can find more articles about finding guidance for your life in the Young Adults section of the January 2022 Liahona.
Check out YA Weekly, found in the Gospel Library under Magazines or Adults > Young Adults, for new, inspiring content for young adults each week.
You can submit your own article, ideas, or feedback at liahona.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Notes
1. Thomas S. Monson, “Your Patriarchal Blessing: A Liahona of Light,” Ensign, Nov. 1986, 66.
2. Thomas S. Monson, “Your Patriarchal Blessing,” 66.
3. Jeffrey R. Holland, “An High Priest of Good Things to Come,” Liahona, Jan. 2000, 45; emphasis in original.
Photograph by Lloyd Eldredge