Ordaining a Priest

Today I ordained Isaac as a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.  With this increase in responsibility, he will be able to administer the sacrament, or, in other words, act as the priesthood voice in blessing either the bread or the water when this ordinance takes place during our ward’s sacrament meeting.  He has also received the authority through this ordination to baptize someone a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints if so asked.  Another thing he can now do (and I know he is very excited about this) is to go out with the missionaries on team-ups.  I know he is looking forward to participating in administering the sacrament and I’m sure he’d be honored by an opportunity to baptize someone, but the thing he has definitely been looking forward to doing is to participate with the missionaries in lessons (he keeps reminding all of us constantly ☺).

My personal feeling is that Isaac has had this desire to go with the missionaries bubbling under the surface as he’s watched Ben do the same, but I think it really started to brew when I took him with me on a team-up assignment with Elders Bowman and Sheppard back in January of this year.  It happened during the time when Ben and Jennifer were in Orange County while Ben was being mentored for his senior project.  The missionaries I mentioned called and asked if I would come out with them to a couple of appointments and I felt impressed to bring Isaac with me instead of leaving him at home.  He told me afterward that it was a real eye-opener for him to be a part of the meeting.  I think he began to understand at a greater level what it meant to teach people the gospel as a missionary and that there was more to it than he had thought.

As Isaac’s opportunity to be ordained a priest has approached, he has become more and more excited because he realized that he can now go out with the missionaries as Ben has.  I think this was one of the reasons that he asked all four Elders to participate in his priesthood circle.  In my last official act as ward mission leader, I created a new team-up list since the other one had expired and I made sure Isaac was paired up with me for that evening.  September 15 is the day we have our turn and he is looking forward to that day with anticipation (he’s hoping he can go out with them before then, but he is waiting for his assigned day as well J).

The Apostle John wrote: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4).  I would modify his quote to say “I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth.”  With Ben coming to the temple last Saturday and taking upon him the covenants connected with being “endowed with power from on high” (D&C 38:32) and ordaining Isaac today as a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, I can say that I have great joy in watching my sons walk in truth.  I mentioned in a recently post that I have been prompted to state in blessings, that Heavenly Father is pleased with the person being blessed.  I believe this last week has helped me gain a small insight as to how He feels as I’ve watched my sons exercise their moral agency and truly walk in the truth Heavenly Father offers us in this mortal probation. J