When
the prophet Abraham was 75 years old and was still called Abram, the
Lord told him to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s
house (Genesis 12:1).
Then the Lord made these astonishing
promises to him:
I will make of thee a
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed (Genesis 12:2–3).
And in thy seed after
thee ... 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 (Abraham 2:11).
It’s
hard not to marvel at the Lord’s generosity in these promises.
But something else stands out: the blessings God promised to Abraham
weren’t supposed to stop with him. He was blessed to become
a blessing — he, and his children after him.
And
who are his children? The apostle Paul taught, “Know ye
therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham.... And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s
seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galations 3:7, 29)
So
as followers of the Savior, we are counted as children of Abraham.
We’re heirs to the same blessings — and the same
privilege of being a blessing to others.
Ann
Voskamp wrote of her amazement when she discovered this truth: “I
am blessed. I can
bless. Imagine!
I could let Him make me
the gift! ... This is one of His miracles too: the taking of a life
and making it a blessing.” (One Thousand Gifts;
emphasis in original.)
The
beautiful irony is that as we seek to bless others, we can’t
keep blessings from coming into our own lives.
A
man once came to Elder John Groberg seeking help with difficult
challenges in his life. Elder Groberg was impressed to tell him, “The
Lord smiles on those who use their time and effort to help others. As
you concentrate on [others and their challenges] more than your own,
I believe solutions to your challenges will become more clear.”
Many
months later, Elder Groberg heard this man bear his testimony in
stake conference. He expressed gratitude to the Lord, his family, and
others who had helped him and his family in their recent challenges.
He testified that the Lord answers prayer.
Then
he said, “I have two questions for you. I have thought a lot
about these questions and would like you to ponder them seriously.
First, Why should the Lord bless us if that blessing simply stops
with us? Second, Why should He not bless us if He knows we will use
that blessing to help others?” In seeking to bless others, this
man was blessed with the help he needed.
Elder
Groberg concluded, “When we use the blessings the Lord has
given us primarily for our own benefit, we close doors to eternal
understanding and progress. When we energetically seek to use the
blessings the Lord has given us to help others, we open many more
doors of heaven.” (Refuge and Reality: The Blessings of the Temple.)
As
we follow Isaiah’s counsel to “look unto Abraham [our]
father” (Isaiah 51:2),
we see our role in the Abrahamic covenant. As recipients of choice
blessings from the Lord, we in turn can bless others. Like Abraham,
we can be
a blessing. We can send out waves of faith and goodness and love
whose influence goes far beyond what we can see in our mortal lives.
Kathryn Grant is a user assistance professional with a passion
for usability and process
improvement. She also loves family history and enjoys the challenge and
reward of building her family tree.
As a child, she lived outside the United States for four years because of her father's job. This experience fueled her natural love of words and language, and also taught her to appreciate other cultures.
Kathryn values gratitude, teaching, learning, differences, and unity. She loves looking at star-filled skies, reading mind-stretching books, listening to contemporary Christian music, attending the temple, and eating fresh raspberries.
Kathryn teaches Sunday family history classes at the BYU Family History Library, and presents frequently at family history events. For more information, visit her Family History Learning Resources page