Four lost words from my patriarchal blessing

Ever since receiving my patriarchal blessing as a teenager, I have felt that the blessing was a gift to me from God. For the first few years after receiving my blessing I would occasionally get out a printed copy and study it, so I always had an idea of what the blessing contained, even if months went by without me reading it.

At one point I determined that I needed to take my patriarchal blessing more seriously. Since it was personal scripture, I typed it up in the same format as my scriptures, divided columns and all. Each paragraph became a verse. I wrote a header that looked very much like section headers from the Doctrine and Covenants. I put this page in my scriptures where I could easily refer to it. This helped me study my patriarchal blessing more often.

I have been granted a gift for memorization. I don't have perfect memory; I have to work at it. And if I go too long without reviewing something I have memorized I tend to lose some or all of it. But one day I realized that I likely had the ability to memorize my patriarchal blessing. Since making that initial effort years ago I have tried to review my blessing about once each week. This usually occurs during showering, since that's a routine task that requires little active thought.

It should be noted here that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints topics website says, "Patriarchal blessings are sacred and personal. They may be shared with immediate family members, but should not be read aloud in public or read or interpreted by others." It is personal scripture that should be kept sacred and shared only under appropriate circumstances. So I'm not going to give many details of mine here.

Recently I felt prompted to review a printed copy of my patriarchal blessing. The wording includes a brief reference to our premortal life. As I read these familiar words I was stunned to see four words that had somehow over time dropped out of my weekly recitation of the blessing.

Those four words that I had been missing were, "The Lord loved you." As I pondered this I thought to myself, "The Lord loved everyone in the premortal world, even Lucifer and his followers." So maybe I had allowed this phrase to lapse because it is true for everyone. It goes without saying.

Deeper pondering helped me understand that the Lord wanted me to know that he loved me individually in the premortal life. Then I realized that the prompting to go look at my blessing so that I could refamiliarize myself with these four words was the Lord's personal message telling me, "I still love you." He knows me personally and his love for me is intensely personal.

The same is true for you. The Lord knows you individually on a deeply personal level. He knows you much better than you know yourself. And he loves you intensely. He likely sends love messages customized specifically for you. But they are subtle enough that they might easily be missed without close attention. That kind of subtlety is another marker of his love. He wouldn't want to infringe on your ability to freely choose.

So look around. Maybe you will notice a divine love message just for you.