The daughter was generally thought of as having a face
like a stone that would break a looking glass, and she looked like she had
missed too many meals.
The father had said that he would be happy to be given a cow
that gave sour milk because he would be happy to get his daughter off his
hands.
The daughter did not want to come to the ceremony in which the
husband to be would ask for her hand because she was sure that the villagers would
laugh at her.
At the ceremony the women of the village talked among themselves
boasting of how many cows their husbands had paid for them, and that this young
girl was not worth more than two cows, and that the young man would drive a
hard bargain and if asked for two cows would offer one, if asked for one would
settle for the horns and tail. The father was advised by his counsellor to ask
for three cows, and when proposing this the villagers laughed.
The young man, who you will likely guess is Johnny Lingo,
silences the villagers and boldly states that three cows is a high price, but
not enough for Mahana. He would offer eight cows. Everyone was stunned! The
whispers immediately spread through the village that Johnny Lingo had offered
eight cows for Mahana.
The following morning Mahana is sure that Johnny Lingo would
not come with the eight cows. She was being mocked and feeling worthless.
Johnny Lingo does come with the cows and graciously leads his bride to be from
her father’s house, treating her like a woman who was worth eight cows.
Some months later, after Johnny Lingo and Mahana have been
away at the honeymoon place, Mahana’s father is very displeased when he visits
their home because he accuses Johnny Lingo of cheating him because Mahana is
worth ten cows! And indeed, she has blossomed and is a delightful sight!
What made the difference?
Young men, the Father of the daughter that you will ask to marry
you simply asks for three cows for his daughter. Those cows are love, honour
and cherish, and to be given for as long as you both shall live. Do you bargain
for less than that? A fashionable offering that I see today is not even one cow
– in the ‘guise’ of ‘love’ all too many young men offer lust and seem to think
that they are being generous, and all too many young women do not believe that
they are worth more than that and leave the Father’s home with the lustful
young man rather than waiting for one who will offer the three cows.
Do you come and offer eight cows to the Father? Do you offer
to be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and to seek after that which
is virtuous, lovely, of good report and praiseworthy? Do you also throw in
belief and hope to make it ten cows that you feel your bride to be is worth? If
you are offering such then you would be insisting on taking your wife to the
honeymoon place called the Temple of the most High, there to show the great
love, honour and cherishing that will make your bride blossom as a Daughter of her
Heavenly Father.
In my home we were constantly reminded that we were Princes
and Princesses in Israel. Now, in case you think that is outlandish, think of
the Lord’s Prayer that you have almost certainly quoted ‘Our Father who art in
heaven...thy kingdom come...For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.’ Matt 6:9-13,
3 Ne 13:9-13.
Think of Rom 8:16-17 in which we are declared to be joint-heirs with Christ.
May I remind you all that royalty may mistakenly think that
they are there to be served, but Jesus Christ taught a much higher principle
when he said in Mark 10:44 that he who would be chiefest shall be
the servant of all. I was really impressed in the coronation of King Charles on 6 May 2023 that he said 'In his name and after his example I come not to be served but to serve.'
In Alma 32:27 we read the challenge to awake and arouse our faculties, even to an experiment
upon Almas’ words. And I invite you to awake and arouse your faculties, even to
an experiment upon my words, and 'exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye
can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye
believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words'. Give way
to experiment upon the words that you are a son or a daughter of God, and that
as such your heritage is worth all of the ‘cows’ of the thirteenth Article of Faith and you will find a growing desire to live worthy of being an ‘eight cow’ wife
or husband. You will come to know in your heart that the worth of your soul,
and that of your wife or husband, is great in the sight of God D&C 18:10.
You will become assured that you have the agency given you
to choose liberty and eternal life or to choose captivity and death 2 Ne 2:27 or to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life 2 Ne 10:23.
Joseph Fielding Smith taught that if we love the Father and Jesus Christ then we will keep their commandments and if we want salvation in its fullest then we need to have a marriage in the
Temple for time and for all eternity.
I always hope and pray that each of my children will
remember what we have taught them, that they are Princes and Princesses in
Israel, and that they will live the spirit of the thirteenth Article of Faith
in full, being eight or ten cow children of God. I hope that they will be the
salt of the earth, letting their lights shine before all men that as their good
works are seen, then the Father in Heaven will be glorified by those who witness
their good works. I hope that they will sow and nurture the seed of faith, letting
it sprout, then nourishing it well to the point that they partake of the fruit ‘which is
most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above
all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast
upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye
thirst’. That they will press forward earnestly, diligently, holding fast to the iron rod.
I have the same prayer for each person who reads this.
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