My Father's Favorite Child

There's been kind of a spiritual overflow in my life lately; nonstop thoughts and wonderings and paying attention to tender mercies. I was sitting here in my apartment looking at blogs, and I came across that of my friend Suzanne. I've known Suzanne since about the 5th grade, and she is amazing. She belongs to that higher class of people, the kind who become general authorities and general relief society presidents. She's very smart and a wonderful student and flute player. She's a good friend and the perfect daughter and sister, from what I can tell. One of her recent blog entries was about a sub she had once, who turned out to be a breast cancer survivor and one of the happiest people she'd ever known. It's amazing how people can surprise you sometimes. Thinking of this reminded me of my own thoughts I've been having lately.
Brother Henry O'Connell, the 1st Counselor in my BYU ward Bishopric was bearing his testimony last fast sunday and he shared a secret tip for connecting with people through life. When he started talking about this my ears perked up because one of my weaknesses is the tendency to stay in my comfort zone rather than trying to meet new people--I've never been one to strike up conversations with strangers, it's not one of my strong points. However, in my patriarchal blessing (and I hope it's ok to share this) it says that one of my gifts is the ability to communicate with others. So I loved what Brother O'Connell said: "I am my Father's favorite child. Of all the children my Heavenly Father created, He loves me the very best. He can't wait to talk to me when I get down on my knees. If the Atonement could've saved only me, and no one else, He still would have sent His son to perform it." And then he went on to say that whenever he's talking to another person, he remembers to tell himself that that person is his Father's favorite child. I decided I had to try this trick.
So I have a friend from my single's ward who used to drive me a little bonkers. Every time we hung out I would end up angry, or feeling really stupid. I haven't seen him since I moved out, and randomly a week or so ago he called me and wanted to hang out. Perfect chance to try out my trick! So we went to dinner and as we were eating I kept in mind the thought that the person in front of me was my Father's favorite child. It prompted questions of why that might be; what it was about Him that my Father loved so much. I knew he'd been through things I didn't know about, and that my Father did know about. I'm sure my Father is proud of this person for the things he has done with his life so far, and I was determined to find those out. The conversation that followed, with me genuinely interested in finding out the very best about this guy, was probably the best we'd ever had. I've known this guy for about two years, and I found out all this amazing stuff about him that I'd never known.
SO anyway, sorry this is long, but I just wanted to share that. I'm my Father's favorite child. And so are you.