The Greatest Honor

I was impressed by this statement of President Packer from a talk several years ago: “I have held positions of trust in education, in business, in government, and in the Church.  I have… received honors, degrees, certificates, plaques. Such honors come with the territory and are undeserved.  Assessing the value of those things, the one thing I treasure more than any of them—more than all of them put together—the thing of most value to me is how our sons and daughters and their husbands and wives treat their children and how, in turn, our grandchildren treat their little ones.”  To me that’s a very profound statement; the greatest honor he felt he could have was for his children to treat their own children in the way Christ would.  Can I truly say that this honor would mean more to me than the praises of the world I might have the opportunity to obtain?  This statement from President Packer is perhaps not too different from the desire of John expressed in the New Testament: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4).  This also reminds me of a statement from President Nelson that I heard in person when I was in the MTC.  It went something like this: “The success of your mission will be measured in the Christlike attributes of your children.”  The number of baptisms or how well you learned the language or how many people you talked to or how many lessons you taught were not, according to President Nelson, the right way to measure the success of a missionary.  A truly successful missionary is one for whom the gospel sinks deep into the heart so much that he or she passes on that testimony for generations to come.  Our greatest missionary work is to our own family, and our greatest honor should be that they fully embrace and live the gospel.  

                Looking at the final events in the lives of some of the prophets in the Book of Mormon shows that they too greatly valued the spiritual well-being of their children and posterity.  Lehi’s final act recorded in the Book of Mormon was to carefully teach his children and grandchildren and leave them his testimony of the gospel.  He gave this invitation to them: “And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit” (2 Nephi 2:28).  Among the final details about Alma’s life we find that he interviews his son Helaman and rejoiced in his son’s righteousness.  He also “blessed him, and also his other sons” (Alma 45:15).  Similarly when King Benjamin found that his life was coming to a close, he brought his three sons to him and taught them and exhorted them to live according to the gospel (see Mosiah 1).  Some of the final words of Mormon that we have recorded were in a letter of encouragement to his son Moroni as he exhorted him to “labor diligently” and “conquer the enemy of all righteousness” (Moroni 9:6).  The final act recorded of Nephi the son of Helaman was to give “charge unto his son Nephi” concerning the sacred records of the people (3 Nephi 1:2).  All of these prophets were deeply concerned about their children’s spirituality when they passed away, and that was what was most important to them in those final moments.  We too must strive to be able to rid ourselves of the world so much that our children’s righteousness becomes one of our greatest desires