He Will Remember You

I can't say I have had a wonderful day. Should I? I have felt tired, worn out, and ready for bed since noon. I came home from work thinking, I'm going to eat and go to bed. Yeah, that didn't happen. So here I am at almost 11:30 p.m. writing this blog asking myself why I have not expired to bed yet. At around 10:30 a feeling came over me to read my journal. Read, you might ask? Yes. As I flipped open my journal, I went directly to an entry pertaining to the October 2007 notes I had taken from General Conference. The specific talk on that side of the opened book was one given by Elder Condie. It was a story he told from the Bible that I now realize I always need to read or think about. I hesitate to say that noone has never felt as if they have been forgotten. I think we have felt at least once, that we are not important enough to be remembered or that we are unworthy to receive the happiness we tend to see others engaging in. Why can't I have that, is an expression I often cloud my mind with when looking at someone I mistakenly think has more than I do. As it can relate to anyone who is willing to listen, I personally feel that this story relates to me at such a deeper level. It's long but it's soooo worth reading. When I first heard this it moved me in such a way that I couldn't get it off my mind. And I shouldn't.


"..As Jacob matured and became of appropriate age, his parents sent him to the household of Laban, where he would meet Laban’s two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Jacob told Laban, “I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. . . . And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her”.

You will recall how Laban beguiled young Jacob into first marrying Leah and then Rachel. “And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren”. And Leah bore Reuben, then Simeon, then Levi, and Judah. Meanwhile, Rachel remained childless.

With ever-increasing envy and mounting desperation, one day Rachel explosively demanded of Jacob, “Give me children or else I die”. Leah subsequently bore two more sons and a daughter.

The Apostle Peter testified that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering” toward us. In this age of one-hour dry cleaning and one-minute fast-food franchises, it may at times seem to us as though a loving Heavenly Father has misplaced our precious promises or He has put them on hold or filed them under the wrong name. Such were the feelings of Rachel.

But with the passage of time, we encounter four of the most beautiful words in holy writ: “And God remembered Rachel”. And she was blessed with the birth of Joseph and later the birth of Benjamin. There are millions on earth today who are descendants of Joseph who have embraced the Abrahamic promise that through their efforts “shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal”.

When heaven’s promises sometimes seem afar off, I pray that each of us will embrace these exceeding great and precious promises and never let go. And just as God remembered Rachel, God will remember you.


P.S If you ever get a chance to listen to this song all the through, I strongly encourage it. It will move you to tears.