In my personal study, I’ve been listening to President Oaks’ General Conference talks. I started with the earliest ones and then moved back to the current ones. I just finished one from April 1987, called “Priesthood Blessings” from the Priesthood Session of conference.

In the talk, he gives many examples and guidelines to help with exercising this privilege. Situations for a father’s or comfort blessing can be requested when a person needs guidance or “extra spiritual power to overcome a personal challenge”. They can also be requested when a person is about to start a new experience. These experiences include school, mission, marriage, or the military. Pres. Oaks stated,

In a priesthood blessing a servant of the Lord exercises the priesthood, as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, to call upon the powers of heaven for the benefit of the person being blessed. Such blessings are conferred by holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which has the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the Church (see D&C 107:18, 67).

Pres. Dallin H. Oaks, “Priesthood Blessings”, April 1987

About these comfort or counsel blessings, Pres. Oaks said, “They can be recorded and kept in family records for the personal spiritual guidance of the persons blessed.” For years, I have written down ideas and impressions from blessings in my journal. Those messages have served as a personal compass. It just always felt like the right thing to do.

When I was a Sophomore at BYU, I was struggling with school and asked my Dad for a blessing. Among other things, the blessing told me to work hard at school. It called me to be a teacher of the Youth of Zion and even of the world. It stated that twice, saying to make sure that I didn’t let anything stop me from that calling.

Well, I was young and I thought, “my Dad got his revelation wrong”. I was studying to be an elementary school teacher. So in my journal notes, I edited it to say that I would be a teacher of the children of Zion and even of the world. A couple of weeks later, I got the impression, “I didn’t say that. Go back and write what I said.“

So, I whited it out in my journal and wrote the correct phrasing. My “young and dumb” thought was, “Well, I don’t know how you are going to do that Heavenly Father!” 😜

(Below is a picture of that page.)

So, after that blessing and experience, I went on “blissfully” with my early young adult life. I fell on my face. I got back up. I learned to live on my own. I went on a mission. I went to the Army. I kept going to school. One day in 1998, while I was walking through the Institute Building at the UofU, I saw a poster. It said something like, Come and Teach the Youth of Zion. I stopped and stared and felt two words, “It’s time.” I signed up for the Seminary Teacher Training Program. I was hired in 1999 and taught until I got married and had our first daughter in 2005.

As I’m writing this, I think of my journey to teach Religion. The phrase “don’t let anything keep me from this calling” stands out. I thought that that idea was just for then. In reflecting on the journey, I’m overwhelmed. Without even knowing it, I have been fighting to continue to teach religion for 3 decades now. I’ve joked about how people kept taking me out of the classroom and the Lord kept boomeranging me back in. And suddenly I see that blessing, given so many years ago in a panorama.

I know that God wants to guide His children to greater peace and happiness. I’m so thankful for good men. My Dad was a Spiritual Minute man. I could call on him anytime for blessings. My husband is always ready and willing. I’m thankful for them and others who work to be in tune with the Holy Spirit. Who try to be righteous. All so that they can give priesthood blessings that truly are from God. I’m thankful for men who are courageous. They give the blessing that they are prompted to give, instead of one that they want to give. As Pres. Oaks taught,

It is a very sacred responsibility for a Melchizedek Priesthood holder to speak for the Lord in giving a priesthood blessing. As the Lord has told us in modern revelation, “My word … shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” (D&C 1:38). If a servant of the Lord speaks as he is moved upon by the Holy Ghost, his words are “the will of the Lord, … the mind of the Lord, … the word of the Lord, … [and] the voice of the Lord” (D&C 68:4).

Pres. Dallin H. Oaks, “Priesthood Blessings”, April 1987

I have seen evidence of that for myself.

I invite you to get blessings of comfort and counsel when you need it. To write down the impressions both spoken and felt. To go back and study them, and your Patriarchal blessing. And to be a witness to how God’s hand is in your life.