Temple moments: Happy birthday
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All my life through, I've had some difficulty remembering to honor family birthdays, sometimes even my mother's and father's birthdays.
After I became an adult, I moved away from my parents' home and lived many miles away. As the years passed, the busyness of life contributed to my sometimes being a less-than-attentive son. Occasionally, Dad would call to remind me that Mom's Aug. 31st birthday was near, or had passed. I would send a belated birthday gift followed by an apologetic phone call wishing her a happy birthday. All the while, I felt bad for the oversight.
Although my mother was not a member of the Church, she was always devout in her religion and steadfast in her faith of Heavenly Father.
The years have passed and both my parents are gone and the family gathered to do their temple work by proxy.
Following a continual prompting, last fall my wife and I shared a tender moment while we were proxy for their sealing in the Los Angeles California Temple. After completing the ordinance, we stood and I happened to glance down at the sealer's desk where he had neatly arranged the family file name slips. My eyes fell upon my parents' records and to my amazement, I saw the date stamped on it: Aug. 31st. Once again, I had not at all realized that it was on my mother's birthday that my wife and I had completed this sacred work.
Now, I seldom believe in coincidence as a way to explain the unexplainable, especially if it pertains to the tender things of the Spirit. I know this vicarious work for my parents on that day was not by happenstance. In the temple, nothing ever is.
"Happy birthday, Mom," I silently shouted to her with an emotional heart. I know she was nearby.
I thought to myself, "What better gift could a sometimes-forgetful son give to a loving mother?"
And on her birthday! — Larry Troxel, Camarillo 2nd Ward, Camarillo California Stake
