February 15th, 2025, 5am mst
When I was in my third year in high school, one of my teachers gave my class a assignment and asked my parents what they loved about us before reporting.
When I approached my dad about it, he sat at his desk with grading paper in his office (he was teaching math classes at the time at a local community college). He said he was busy right now but he said he would come back to me.
Later that night, he handed me a piece of paper. Above it was a typed numbered list entitled “10 Things I Love About Rachel,” with an introductory paragraph and his signature and the date at the bottom.
Besides being incredibly sweet, I still cherish that list – that gesture reveals a lot about him. Not only did my dad love me, but as a systems engineer, everything he did was thorough, well thought out and organized. He didn’t necessarily describe me, especially as a teenager.
He coloured his sock drawers and I constantly searched for clothing scattered across the various mountains around my room. When he was calm and analytical, I might get emotional and a bit impulsive. He was easy. I was diplomatic.
Because of our differences, I often embraced my mother about daily problems and struggles. My mother thought she could better understand the emotional and social nuances of being a teenage girl.
But I always respected my father for all our differences. He was kind, patient, slow to be angry, and was also a strong leader in our home. I was able to rely on him – physically, emotionally and mentally.
Often my mother, my brother and I sought him for priesthood blessings. I remember the blessings he gave to my mother when she was diagnosed with cancer.
I remember the kind blessings of my early teens. I not only felt known and loved by my father on earth, but I also knew that my father was known and loved by my father in heaven.
Throughout my childhood and adolescence, my father gave me healing, comfort, guidance, protection and blessings of strength.
Those priesthood blessings served as anchors for me as I struggled to ride the waves of teenage skepticism and anxiety. When the secular army drove me away, they pulled me back.
“If the father expands the priesthood in his own family, it will promote the church’s mission as much as what they might do else,” he said, first counselor of the first presidency. President Darrin H. Oaks (The Power of Priesthood Power, April 2018 General Assembly).
My father was not the perfect man. He had weaknesses, challenges and fields in his life that he struggled with. However, he presented his will to the Lord, learned how to receive personal revelation and access priesthood power.
In a speech during a priesthood session entitled “Prince of Priesthood Power,” President Russell M. Nelson, then quorum president of the 12 apostles, said, “Paying the price of priesthood power.” Only those who have done it can bring miracles to those he loves.”
He added: Perhaps one of these diverse places is in our own homes where emotional, financial or spiritual “earthquakes” can occur. The power of the priesthood can calm the ocean and heal the fractures of the earth. The power of the priesthood can calm our minds and heal the broken hearts of those we love.
“We pray, quickly, study, study, worship, worship, worship, worship, worship, worship, worship, worship, worship, so that we can have such priesthood power. Do you want to serve?”
Looking back, fully expressing what it means to me, the way it strengthened my faith and testimony, brings to the blessings of my father, who used the power and influence of the priesthood. To get it, it’s difficult for me to fully express. By kindness and meekness, and by unloved love” (D&C 121:41).
It has been more than a decade since he passed away, but I am still missing that sweet connection from my father, a personalized, powerful priesthood blessing.
– Rachel Stirser Gibson is a church news reporter.
