Since we don't have a flagpole on which to hang an American flag at half staff today, I figured we would pay our respects to a great man, President Gordon B Hinckley, by posting a message about him here on our blog today, the day after his passing.
For those of you who don't know much about President Hinckley, he has served as President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints for approximately the last 13 years. He was 97 years old. Prior to serving the church in this capacity, he spent the majority of the rest of his life serving in different church capacities including Apostle, Counselor in the first presidency, and church media director.
Though we have never had the chance to shake his hand in person, both Christy and I have had the privilege to be present when he spoke on numerous occasions, both in person and through media. As we remember him, he was a man of wisdom and love, who always had great counsel and was most known for his ability to lead by example. He was and is truly the one person, whom we have personally encountered in our lives, that we can say has been atop the list of people we revere. If we could live our lives with only half the faith, wisdom, love, and true Christ-like charity that this man did we would deem our lives an extreme success. President Hinckley embodies the gospel of Jesus Christ as we know it.
For those of you who don't know much about President Hinckley, he has served as President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints for approximately the last 13 years. He was 97 years old. Prior to serving the church in this capacity, he spent the majority of the rest of his life serving in different church capacities including Apostle, Counselor in the first presidency, and church media director.
Though we have never had the chance to shake his hand in person, both Christy and I have had the privilege to be present when he spoke on numerous occasions, both in person and through media. As we remember him, he was a man of wisdom and love, who always had great counsel and was most known for his ability to lead by example. He was and is truly the one person, whom we have personally encountered in our lives, that we can say has been atop the list of people we revere. If we could live our lives with only half the faith, wisdom, love, and true Christ-like charity that this man did we would deem our lives an extreme success. President Hinckley embodies the gospel of Jesus Christ as we know it.
Two specific things that come to my memory when I think of President Hinckley, that I think really act as symbols of his personality, are his love for his wife and his cane.
It seemed that on every occasion possible, President Hinckley praised his wife as the person who completed him. He explained that she was who held their family together and the refining fire that he met to help him mold his own character. There was a definite apparent sadness that came over President Hinckley at her passing nearly four years ago. I think I speak for the whole of our church when I say that we are all extremely happy that he has now been re-united with her in the spirit world awaiting the day that they can stand together before the judgment bar of Christ and be found worthy to enter into the celestial kingdom together.
The other thing that I remember about President Hinckley was his cane. When he first started carrying a cane (around the year 2000) he stood up in General Conference and made the comment, after jokingly knocking one of his first counselors in the head with the cane, "my doctor has told me that due to my old age I will need to carry a cane. I told him I would carry it, but could not guarantee how often it would touch the ground. He agreed that this was a fair compromise." After his address he walked back to his seat carrying the cane and setting it in his lap. On other occasions President Hinckley was known to lead the Mormon Tabernacle choir with the famous cane, wave to numerous people, and do numerous other funny things with the cane. What President Hinckley's cane represented for me was his ability to lighten a serious situation. President Hinckley was able to make anyone laugh and feel welcome, while still performing the daunting tasks of acting as President and voice of revelation for an entire world-wide church.
This picture I found on Salt Lake City's Deseret News website and I think it successfully embodies the two things that we remember about President Hinckley:
It seemed that on every occasion possible, President Hinckley praised his wife as the person who completed him. He explained that she was who held their family together and the refining fire that he met to help him mold his own character. There was a definite apparent sadness that came over President Hinckley at her passing nearly four years ago. I think I speak for the whole of our church when I say that we are all extremely happy that he has now been re-united with her in the spirit world awaiting the day that they can stand together before the judgment bar of Christ and be found worthy to enter into the celestial kingdom together.
The other thing that I remember about President Hinckley was his cane. When he first started carrying a cane (around the year 2000) he stood up in General Conference and made the comment, after jokingly knocking one of his first counselors in the head with the cane, "my doctor has told me that due to my old age I will need to carry a cane. I told him I would carry it, but could not guarantee how often it would touch the ground. He agreed that this was a fair compromise." After his address he walked back to his seat carrying the cane and setting it in his lap. On other occasions President Hinckley was known to lead the Mormon Tabernacle choir with the famous cane, wave to numerous people, and do numerous other funny things with the cane. What President Hinckley's cane represented for me was his ability to lighten a serious situation. President Hinckley was able to make anyone laugh and feel welcome, while still performing the daunting tasks of acting as President and voice of revelation for an entire world-wide church.
This picture I found on Salt Lake City's Deseret News website and I think it successfully embodies the two things that we remember about President Hinckley:
For more information about President Hinckley or our church you can visit the following websites:
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3 comments:
Your memories of President Hinckley and his cane made me smile. That's what I liked best about him, I think. He always made me smile. He most definitely was an amazing man.
Gracie was looking at blogs with me this afternoon and when we got to yours she got a big smile on her face and said, "That's baby Gabbie and her mommy and daddy right there! I love baby Gabbie!" We miss you guys!
Gracie wants to see more pictures of "her baby gabbie" I swear she just told me that and I'm not using my child as an excuse to get you to post a new blog. :)
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