Cast Into the Lord's Storehouse

I had the unique opportunity today to attend the funeral of my wife’s grandfather and participate in the celebration of his great life.  It was a stunning sight to see all of the family there, for he and his wife had seventeen children and have currently 115 grandchildren and over 150 great-grandchildren.  The prayer and closing of the casket—normally held in a side room in the Church—took place in the large chapel, which was completely full, with people even seated on the stands, so that just the family members could participate.  It seems to me that the course of his life seems to have been shaped significantly by one particular choice he made as he finished high school.  He was a very accomplished pianist and had the opportunity to go back east and attend the prestigious school Julliard to further this talent.  But he chose instead to stay, have a family, and live on modest means most of his life.  He later said, “The greatest thing we ever did was to have our family.”  He chose to put his family first, and today we could all see the powerful effect of that choice by the sheer numbers of people there celebrating his life.  

             What also struck me, though, was that in making that early sacrifice to place family above his own pursuits, he did not give up his talent for the piano but rather gave it a different focus—to serve his family.  One daughter spoke of how he played the piano frequently at nights and she spoke of the calming effect that this had on them.  I loved it when I was once able to hear him play, and I’m sure that he used this talent in many wonderful acts of service throughout his life for his family and others, even if he did forgo the initial opportunity to further it at a prestigious university.  Surely he lived by the great principle of consecration that the Lord taught His servants early in this dispensation: “And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:18-19).  As the Lord gives us each talents, He invites us to cast them into His symbolic storehouse, to use them first and foremost in His service to love and bless and bring souls to Him.  The key point is not that we must always make a choice to give up career opportunities to focus on family; rather, it is that we first seek the interest of our neighbor and do all things with an eye single to the glory of God.  The most important question in this regard for us is to figure out how the Lord wants us to use our particular talents to bless His children.  It very well may be that the way to do that for some talented musician would be to go to Julliard in order to be prepared to be in God’s service later in life.  But for my wife’s Grandpa, the way for him to cast his talent into the Lord’s storehouse was to use it to bless the hundreds who would call him father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.  For this and the persistent goodness of his life, surely it could be said of him as it was said of Oliver Granger: “His name shall be had in sacred remembrance from generation to generation, forever and ever” (Doctrine and Covenants 117:12).