What Birthright Means . . . To Me

I had some impressions the other morning and need to write them down.

It was about our “birthright”. Esau, the twin brother to Jacob of Old traded his birthright which meant the standing he had as the first son born to Rebekah and Jacob. He was mislead and followed his own carnal desires while he traded it for the things of the world and the desires of the flesh.

He gave it all up. In Genesis 25: 34—“Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.” Therefore Jacob inherited everything of his father’s blessings, spiritual and temporal.

The blessings of birthright are spiritually motivated. I know in my own birthright, I was told when the ordinances in the temple were pronounced upon me at the altar as I place my hand on the proxies’ hands of my parents, the still small voice spoke to me and reaffirmed to me the blessings of that sealing power gave me my birthright as a daughter of my parents forever as if I was the first one to be sealed to them in life.

I was instructed by the sealer after my parents were sealed to one another for all eternity, the sealer said since “I was faithful in this life to receive the blessings of my temple covenants, endowments and the order was correct for me to be first. It was as if I was given the position of their firstborn child as if I had been born first. My brothers who were now deceased were sealed by proxy to my parents after me. It gave me a warm feeling and one that I finally belonged to them . . . forever!!!

Words cannot describe how I felt, other than an emotional burst of joy (tears of happiness) in finally realizing (up to that moment in the Lord’s holy temple), the desire of my heart. I had waited thirty-six years for that to occur. My father had been gone for over a year for me to see that desire come to fruition.

How blessed I felt and celebrated that day, and kept the tradition to commemorate each year after with my children to have Tamales on the anniversary or thereabouts. The hearts of the children were truly turned to our fathers (ancestors) for that welding link from me to them, and to my parents after me.