Description
I Donated A Gun
I speak to those of you who feel that you are just not that important in the work of the Lord.
Sometime just previous to the dedication of the Kirtland House of the Lord in March 1836, a series of meetings were held in which those who had labored to build the house were called to receive a special priesthood blessing under the hands of the First Presidency.
Benjamin F. Johnson attended all of those public meetings and listened to the choice blessings given. He described “feeling great joy in these prophetic words that filled and almost thrilled me.”
He assumed that those blessings were reserved only for those who had labored with their hands to help build the Temple, which, of course, being too weak for the work, he had not. He wrote, “It grieved me exceedingly to think that perhaps, through my neglect, I was to be deprived of that which to me appeared of more worth than all earthly things.”
Benjamin watched. The blessings continued until the very last one. Then suddenly, the Prophet Joseph Smith turned toward the door where Benjamin was standing, and said earnestly to his brother Hyrum, “Go and see if there is not one more yet to be blessed.”
Hyrum came to the door, placed his hand on Benjamin’s shoulder and asked if he had worked on the Temple. Benjamin responded, “No sir,” which he said “seemed like passing a sentence upon my fondest hopes.”
Rather than turn away, Hyrum asked again if he had not done anything to further the work on the House. Benjamin remembered that he had earned a new gun and he had donated it to be sold. He also remembered the few bricks that he had helped make.
“I did give a gun,” Benjamin said.
Whereupon, Hyrum said, “I thought there was a blessing for you.”
“He almost carried me to the stand,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin received that blessing he had so earnestly desired, confirming many things stated in his patriarchal blessing and promising him much more. Gratitude filled his soul that “the Lord had respect for [his] greatest desire, even to be the youngest and last to be blessed.”
Benjamin called it a “high privilege” and wrote, “my joy was full.”
Benjamin’s gifts were not the ordinary. He didn’t build the pulpits or erect the steeple—he donated a gun and made a few bricks. Maybe your gifts to the Lord’s work are not huge sums of tithing or serving as the relief society president or Bishop, but I promise, the Lord has a blessing for you and respect for your offering.
The day will come when the Lord will call you up and bless you for your service—even if all you were able to do was make a few bricks.
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