And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
God's Covenant of Peace
Patricia T. Holland
Patricia T. Holland
I heard Pat Holland give this address at a BYU Women's Conference in 1999. It resonated deeply with me. I was needing to hear her words that day. As I read it again this morning here are some favorite quotes she used.
"Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built." (Helaman 5:12).
Psalm 107 reads: "They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven" (v. 26–30).
But remember what our Savior tells us; Be of good comfort, I have overcome the world. See his goodness, he hath conquered our enemies before hand, and by Faith in him, we shall assuredly prevail over them all. Therefore my sweet wife, raise up thy heart, and be not dismayed at the crosses thou meetest with in family affairs, or otherwise, but still fly to him, who will take up thy burden for thee, go thou on cheerfully in obedience to his holy will, in the course he hath set thee, peace shall come, thou shalt rest as in thy bed and in the mean time he will not fail nor forsake thee" John Winthrop (Winthrop Papers, 6 vols. [Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1929], 2:84).
"Only God is able. It is faith in him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism. Is someone here moving toward the twilight of life and fearful of that which we call death? Why be afraid? God is able. Is someone here on the brink of despair because of the death of a loved one, the breaking of a marriage, or the waywardness of a child? Why despair? God is able to give you the power to endure that which cannot be changed. Is someone here anxious because of bad health? Why be anxious? Come what may, God is able" (Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love [Cleveland, Ohio: Collins, 1963], 112)
And lastly, a couple quotes from Sister Holland:
"Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built." (Helaman 5:12).
Psalm 107 reads: "They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven" (v. 26–30).
But remember what our Savior tells us; Be of good comfort, I have overcome the world. See his goodness, he hath conquered our enemies before hand, and by Faith in him, we shall assuredly prevail over them all. Therefore my sweet wife, raise up thy heart, and be not dismayed at the crosses thou meetest with in family affairs, or otherwise, but still fly to him, who will take up thy burden for thee, go thou on cheerfully in obedience to his holy will, in the course he hath set thee, peace shall come, thou shalt rest as in thy bed and in the mean time he will not fail nor forsake thee" John Winthrop (Winthrop Papers, 6 vols. [Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1929], 2:84).
"Only God is able. It is faith in him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism. Is someone here moving toward the twilight of life and fearful of that which we call death? Why be afraid? God is able. Is someone here on the brink of despair because of the death of a loved one, the breaking of a marriage, or the waywardness of a child? Why despair? God is able to give you the power to endure that which cannot be changed. Is someone here anxious because of bad health? Why be anxious? Come what may, God is able" (Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love [Cleveland, Ohio: Collins, 1963], 112)
And lastly, a couple quotes from Sister Holland:
What we too often fail to realize is that at the same time we covenant with God, he is covenanting with us—promising blessings, privileges, and pleasures our eyes have not yet seen and our ears have not yet heard. Though we may see our part in the matter of faithfulness going by fits and starts, by bumps and bursts here and there, God's part is sure and steady and supreme. We may stumble, but he never does. We may falter, but he never will. We may feel out of control, but he never is. The reason the keeping of covenants is so important to us is at least partly because it makes the contract so binding to God. Covenants forge a link between our telestial, mortal struggles and God's celestial, immortal powers.
I stand as a witness that my most precious blessings, miracles, and the realization of God's covenantal promises have come after my fears have been aroused, my faith has been tried, and my heart truly broken in humility and supplication.
I stand as a witness that my most precious blessings, miracles, and the realization of God's covenantal promises have come after my fears have been aroused, my faith has been tried, and my heart truly broken in humility and supplication.
I have always been extra fond of this whole chapter of scripture ever since I heard Sister Holland give this address. Verse 13 has been critical for me.
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
Unfortunately, before I learned this verse and studied this chapter of 3rd Nephi, I had already learned verse 25 of D&C section 68:
And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion or in any of her stakes which are organized that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.
For too many years this particular scripture haunted me with nightmares that I did not do enough, that my children's choices were my fault. Even though I could be rational and admit that we don't control another's actions, I would read this and read it again and know for a fact that even though I taught my kids the gospel, I had failed in making sure they "understood" it. Guilty - condemned - haunted.
So can you imagine how I felt when I heard Sister Holland using this passage in her talk. Can you imagine how I felt when I realized that this chapter in 3rd Nephi was a repeat of Isaiah 54. It was so important that the Lord gave it to us twice.
Those words are the greatest comfort - "and thy children shall be taught of the Lord." It makes me so happy to read them.
I think of my children and picture them in my mind as I read Psalm 121:
PSALM 121
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
My children are in capable hands. I trust their Keeper. My job, as it says in "Healing Through Christ", is to step trying to manipulate things and let the Lord do His work!
(p. 9 The act of controlling our . . . loved ones can be deceptive. We control in the name of love. We do it because we're only trying to help. We do it because we're right ad they're wrong . . . [unfortunately and unsuccessfully]. We do it to stop the pain. Our perception of this unhealthy behavior begins to clear when we understand that controlling and manipulating also places us in the position of interfering with Heavenly Father's plan to help our loved ones . . . We can trust that God is already trying to help them and surely He can do what we are not capable of doing.")
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