by: Norberto Betita
I was born August 25, 1952. The days of my earthly probation
is seemingly flying fast ‘upon the wings of the wind’. The highs and lows of my
life in mortality remained just fleeting shadows of the past, yet served as a
definite and solid anchor in my continued journey to the challenges of the
present and the anxieties of the future. The battlefield of good and evil and
the enduring race to eternity is not ended by my turning from a life of
physical vigor and vitality to the weakening health of seniority. The Refiner’s
fire seemed to even magnify as my remaining days move fast towards the final
call. Thus, I plead, as David did, “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful
unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I
make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. (Psalm 57:1)
I wish I would have a score added into my life’s remaining
years that alongside my contests against the faith defying postulates of the
world, I shall be an example and a witness to the spiritual growth and progress
of my posterity onwards to the grand and glorious promise of celestial bliss. I
wish that my life will be a pattern of a repentant soul for my posterity to
emulate. May God grant my long and incessant pleadings for a year or two of
full-time service in His kingdom, with my dearly beloved eternal partner, my
ever dearest--- Letty.
As in the years of my birthdays past, I enjoyed the greetings
and best wishes from family and friends, but grand and lavish celebrations I had
none, for penury and deprivations always seized the stage of my life’s drama.
Hence, I thought it best to celebrate my birthdays just always as a day for the
family to be gathered in love, unity and harmony. As it is, therefore, my
transitional birthday from the vulnerability and exuberance of youth and the
prime of maturity to the pigeon-hole of the senior citizen class would remain
just an ordinary reflective day. And, perhaps a time for me to remember the
psalm of Nephi, “Awake my soul, no longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O, my heart
and give place no more for the enemy of my soul” (2 Nephi 22:28).
The concluding days of my 59th year of earthly
probation filled my soul with magnificent reflections of the memorable years of
my life’s past. It reminds me of the
words always quoted by Pres. Thomas S. Monson, “God gave us memories that we
may have June roses in the December of our lives.” And as I count the blessings
which Heaven so ever generously endowed, I do have my eyes filled with tears
and my heart pounding with deepest gratitude for the joyful realization of the
great goodness and marvellous manifestations of God’s love and mercy for me a
sinner. While worldly wealth and
abundance seemed aloof and unapproachable notwithstanding extended hands of
industry and hard work, nevertheless the riches of eternity looms. The exhaustive trials and tribulations; the
crippling and painful physical afflictions; the deepening challenges of poverty
and deprivations; and the rest of the tests of mortality filled my heart with
gratitude for the realization that without God, I am totally nothing. But I am
even most grateful to have such a feeling of hope and assurance that to Him,
even the Father, I am everything. “For
God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
Then I should take the challenge which Wilford Woodruff wrote, “Bless your
souls, if you lived here in the flesh a thousand years, as long as father Adam,
and lived and labored all your life in poverty, and when you got through, if,
by your acts, you could secure your wives and children in the morning of the
first resurrection, to dwell with you in the presence of God, that one thing
would amply pay for the labours of a thousand years.”
Therefore, in the final old age lap of my run into the race
of life I would like to leave an undeviating open wish for my family. To my most precious and ever dearest Letty, I
wish your love for me, for our children and our grandchildren will forever and
ever remain boundless. May the grasp of your affectionate and caring hands
continue to bind our family in love, unity, harmony and peace. May your back be
continually strengthened by the burdens and trials of mortality towards and
enduring finish into the shores of eternity.
To my fair and precious daughters---Hazel, Lori Lynne,
Kathleen Beth, Shauna Megan, and my only daughter-in-law---Analiza, I wish that
as you are privileged to receive the honors of maternity, may you always take
with you the light that your mother ever so patiently and enduringly carry to illuminate
your pathways even into the darkest abyss of spiritual rescue. May her kind of
motherhood be a beacon and inspiration in your quest for an eternal family. May
you continually honor the covenants you have made to Him who dwells on high.
May you always remember that families are forever and therefore all trials, all
challenges, and all afflictions are worth such a promise. May you always find
time to nurture and nourish each of your children with the good word of God
towards a life of righteousness. May you continue to set your visions to the
Holy Temple where eternity dwells. May your relationship with each of your
husband be as ever strong as to withstand every wind of adversity in life. To
my youngest unmarried daughter Shauna Megan, fair and beautiful, I wish you
will find a worthy man who will escort you into the doors of the Temple and clasp
your hands together under the new and everlasting covenant of marriage.
To my only son Robert Sherwin, and my sons-in-law, Oliver,
Fraudel and Jesle, I do wish you will always take a firm stand that indeed,
“...the greatest work that you will ever do, is within the walls of your own
homes” (Harold B. Lee). May you always bear in mind that your wife is a
priority and your family is preeminent. As you were given the greatest and holy
honor of being ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood, I wish you will
continually keep your oath and covenant that the blessings of eternity may
await you. May you keep yourself worthy to serve in God’s Kingdom. May you
preside over your family according to the patterns which the Lord has so
clearly set in the scriptures. May you
always remember that, “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by
virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness
and meekness, and by love unfeigned. By kindness and pure knowledge, which
shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy and without guile” (D & C
121:40-41). May you always take the lead as the patriarch of the home to read
the scriptures daily, to do weekly family home evenings, and to daily call upon
God in prayer. May the words of Daniel Webster echo:
If we work
upon marbles, it will perish.
If we work
upon brass, time will efface it.
If we rear a
temple, it will crumble to dust.
But if we
work upon men’s immortal minds,
If we imbue
them with high principles,
With just
fear of God and love of their fellowmen,
We engrave
upon those tablets
Something
which will brighten and brighten to all eternity.
I wish you
all will find success in your earthly endeavours to provide for the temporal needs
of your respective families. May your labours be fruitful according to the
promise of obedience and godly priority.
To my lovely
grandchildren, my dear little angels---KayAnn, Keeshia, Craig Kirby, Rulon
Asher, Jelliene Zaferra, Travis, Cian Kenneth, and my foster daughter,
Angelica, how wonderful of you to have come into my life. I wish your childhood will be filled with joy
and gladness. I wish you will always be obedient to your parents in
righteousness. I wish your growing up years will be filled with light and
vision for eternity. May you hold tight to the guiding hands of your parents as
you trudge the narrow path to the celestial kingdom of God. May the talents
which God bestowed upon you so abundantly, prosper and advance as you grow in
youthful vigor and eventual maturity. May you always fill your days with
gratitude for every experience of good or bad as you commune with God in
prayer.
May God grant
my best wishes!
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