Why Read Your Patriarchal Blessing--Again?

A legal contract, if written correctly, should have only one meaning.  And no matter who reads the contract or when it is read, it should have only that one meaning. But a patriarchal blessing is not like a legal contract. 

As a patriarch explained to me, a patriarchal blessing, like the scriptures, is not intended to have just one meaning.  It is designed to have different meanings, depending on when you read it.  

Let’s say you receive you patriarchal blessing at the age of 12.  When you read it at 12 you may understand a certain meaning of some of the phrases in the blessing.  When you read that same blessing at age 16 or 18, those same phrases may have a different meaning.

When you read that blessing on your mission, or as you are getting ready to marry, or at the birth of your first child, those phrases may still have a different meaning for you.  Or when you read that blessing as a grandparent, they may have yet another meaning.

But as the patriarch explained, all those interpretations can be correct.  Each interpretation depends on the circumstances in which you find yourself.

Those of us, who are struggling, need all the help we can get.  Perhaps reading our patriarchal blessing once again in the unique circumstance, in which we now find ourselves, may help us with our recovery.