I have had such an emotional day after hearing that our dear Prophet has passed. I knew that I needed to record some of my feelings about this time for my children to read in the future. For totally selfish reasons I wanted so much to hold on to our sweet Prophet for even more time then we were blessed to have him with us. What a truly inspiring man he is. Gordon B. Hinckley is the essence of kindness, charity, love, hard work, integrity and obedience. I marvel at all of the good he did for the church in his many years of service. Just one example of a lesson I learned from the actions of our Prophet occurred in April of 2002 when Jeremy and I were able to attend the dedication of the Lubbock, Texas temple.
We made our arrangements and got our tickets a couple of weeks prior to the big day. We knew that we would need to leave Amarillo very early so we could get to Lubbock (120 miles away) and drop Jake and Riley off with my cousin Vickie and her family. Our stake was assigned the earlier session of the dedication and even though this was such a joyous time I was feeling sort of bitter about the fact that we had to make this huge sacrifice to be their so early when the members who lived in Lubbock were going to be attending a latter time slot. I even spoke the words out loud to Jeremy that this just doesn't seem fair it was just bad planning in my mind. We woke up very early that morning and I was feeling a little under the weather I had this bad attitude and as horrible as this sounds I considered for a moment cancelling the trip. We got to Lubbock and dropped off the kids and got to the temple in plenty of time in fact we were a little early. Many people were walking around the temple grounds and rumors started circling that the Prophet was on his way over for the ceremony. A sudden wave of emotion enveloped my whole being as I saw a black car pull up, park in front of the temple and then the Prophet and his sweet wife were assisted out of the car. The Prophet turned to the people and waved at us all as he used a cane to walk into the temple. I felt the spirit so strongly just being in his presence knowing that he is the Lord's mouth piece. What a change in my attitude I had as I saw this elderly man who had made many sacrifices to be with us in Lubbock on this special day. President Hinckley could have easily sent another General Authority to preform this ceremony but he knew how important it was to us to have our own temple close to us and he wanted to be there himself as it was dedicated. From this experience I took with me several lessons including the lesson of being where you should be at all times. It is so easy for us to think I won't be missed at church or convince ourselves that we are not feeling 100% so we can catch up with sleep instead of attend a 9:00 am Sacrament meeting. How does taking the easier road ever help us grow? It does not and will never. I also gained such a personal testimony of the love of our Prophet for each of us. At the time of this experience President Hinckley was 92 years old. Standing in the same place as our prophet was a wonderful experience I felt his love as well as the love of our Savior. Everyone did. We will all miss President Hinckley greatly, the words to the hymn "Till We Meet Again" keep playing in my head I believe this is a great time to read those lyrics once again.
God be with you till we meet again;
By his counsels guide, uphold you;
With his sheep securely fold you.
God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus’ feet,
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.
7 comments:
Beautiful words, Liza. I feel like I have lost my favorite Grandpa. And yet, I am happy that he is together again with his beloved Marjorie. He has earned his rest.
Thank you for this post, it made me very happy. I too have felt selfish in being so sad when it's really a wonderful thing for him to finally be able to rest.
That was beautiful, Liza! Thank you.
What a wonderful tribute. I really miss him already. I know what you mean about feeling selfish. When I was told about his death and then started telling other people I couldn't stop crying. I was told over and over again how wonderful this is. We were blessed to have him here as long as we did.
That was such a fabulous post Liza! Thanks for sharing such a sweet experience. I think we all have moments where we overlook what the true importance of life really is. We were extremely blessed to have such a wonderful man at the head of our church.
He was such a sweet man. I think everyone will miss him so much. But on the other hand, at his age and everything, and knowing he is with his wife again, it's hard to be too sad, ya' know?
I know looking at him at different conferences he looked like a few times he wouldnt make it through the year but some how he always did. I wonder if he ever thought in his mind for all of us faithful members to stop praying for him so he can see his lovely wife again. Probably not but im sure he was ready and happy too. Just think of him having a great reunion with her and Joseph Smith. Wow if I could be a fly on that wall.
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