Love From Elder & Sister Freestone
Pat Freestone
Happy Father's Day, Oh how we love and appreciate all of you!
Chris and I had the opportunity to speak in church today so the past few weeks we have reflected on our assigned topics, "How we can be parents in Zion." and "Our Relationship with Heavenly Father." I will share small excerpts from each talk.
Chris masterfully taught about the precious commodity of time and began with President Kimball's often quoted anonymous story, "Time For Sale."
He also quoted President Monson, “Time passes quickly. Many parents say that it seems like yesterday that their children were born. Now those children are grown, perhaps with children of their own. ‘Where did the years go?’ they ask. We cannot call back time that is past, we cannot stop time that now is, and we cannot experience the future in our present state. Time is a gift, a treasure not to be put aside for the future but to be used wisely in the present. (“Dedication Day,” Ensign, Nov. 2000)
Chris then related that years ago we had a family home evening with some of our children and grandchildren. We taught this lesson on time. Because the grandchildren were young, we started out by asking them how they would spend $24 if it was given to them each day, with the stipulation that they had to spend all of it each day. The fourth and sixth graders were quite creative. Then we made the correlation to the $24 equaled 24 hours in a day and how important it was to spend those hours wisely. After the closing prayer, and when there was a lot of conversation going on my five-year-old granddaughter came up to me, leaned in, and softly said “Grandpa… who gets the money?” She may have missed the analogy, but we were talking about time rather than money. However, she did understand that we were talking about something valuable.
He reasoned, I like to think of the letters in the word TIME T-I-M-E as standing, for THIS IS MY ETERNITY. Meaning, what I am doing now will determine the type of eternity that I will have.
I shared a faint childhood memory of standing with my dad on the front lawn and gazing up at the stars. We had just returned from a long car trip and as an innocent four-year-old, I asked my all-knowing father, “Which of those stars did we travel to on our trip?” He tenderly explained that we had not traveled to any of them as they were so very far away it would be impossible to reach any of them by car. I was surprised and looked up at my father to see if he was teasing me. He continued to gaze at the canopy of stars and I knew he was telling me the truth. I slipped my little hand in the big strong hand of my father and instead of feeling small and insignificant, I felt safe, understood, and loved.
I shared this quote from Elder Uchtdorf, who reminded us of our worth to God when he said, “And while we may look at the vast expanse of the universe and say, “What is man in comparison to the glory of creation?” God Himself said we are the reason He created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent universe—is to save and exalt mankind. In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters.”
I will close this weeks letter as I did my talk,
Perhaps this Father’s Day, tonight as we gaze to the heavens and “in awesome wonder, and consider all the worlds His hands have made”, we too will feel inclined to declare our love for our Father in Heaven with the heartfelt affirmation, “My God, How Great Thou Art!” Then, as we metaphorically slip our little hand in the big strong hand of our Heavenly Father, instead of feeling small and insignificant, we can and will feel safe, understood, and oh so very loved.
Love you all,
Grandpa & Grandma, Mom & Dad, Chris & Pat
