OUR GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
A message for the family of Ferren and Violet Bunker - June 16, 1992
Our family is now composed of a number of individual homes. It is composed of fathers, mothers, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We include as members of our family all of our direct posterity and their spouses. During the past 50 years our numbers have increased from the two of us June 16, 1942 to 43 June 16, 1992. We cannot think of a greater gift than to have a family with every member faithfully serving the Lord and keeping His commandments.
We have been told that each family in the church is supposed to be a kingdom or unit of government within itself. The father, by virtue of the sealing blessings of eternal marriage, is the head of that government. We should all remember that when Adam was placed upon the earth our Heavenly Father said that it is not good that man should be alone. Eve was given him to be his helpmeet, an eternal companion, and they were to be as one. The Apostle Paul further enlightened us that “man is not with¬out the woman and woman is not without the man in the Lord”. It is most important in our family that although fathers are to preside, the mother is made an equal partner as she walks with him by his side. We want each father in our family to be aware that the government of heaven is by family. By virtue of his priesthood calling he has the great challenge and responsibility to make his family an eternal family. His wife shares equally in that responsibility. Let us remember always that the government of heaven is patriarchal. Every father in our family is a patriarch. He is to make his wife a priestess and a queen. He is to preside over his family with love, wisdom, gentleness, understanding, patience and cooperation. The patriarchal order is of divine origin and will continue throughout time and eternity. It takes every member of a family to qualify the family as a celestial or forever family. We are so very grateful that all of the families within our family are working conscientiously to prepare and qualify for an exaltation in our Heavenly Father’s kingdom.
We are very thankful that the mothers in our family are one with their husbands in making of their homes a bit of heaven. President McKay said that “mothers are the greatest influence either for good or ill in human life”. We rejoice that the mothers of our family are stamping an image for good that will remain with their children through all of the unwritten pages of their lives.
Children learn by example. Children tend to imitate their parents. If we want our children to follow the teachings given in the gospel of Jesus Christ we must do much more than tell them. We must show them by what we do. If we want our children to keep the Sabbath day holy, we must keep it holy. If we want them to read the scriptures, we must read them. If we want them to be honest, we must be honest and so it is with every law and ordinance of the gospel. We want all of the members of our family to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is most important to us. We want all members of our family to make it most important to them. We want each and every member of our family to trust the Lord in His admonition for us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all else shall be added”. It is only when we fail to do what the Lord says that we have need to fear. As we sing in one of our hymns, “If we do what is right, we have no need to fear for the Lord, our helper, will ever be near. In the days of trial His saints He will cheer, and prosper the cause of truth”. That seems to be our theme song because frequently as we take our one mile walk in the mornings, we sing it and we find that it is true.
We have not had much of worldly wealth throughout the past 50 years but we have managed to live within our means. Our riches however are monumental Money cannot buy that which we value most. Our wealth is in our family. We thank the Lord for sending us Janet, Dianne, Norma, Terry and Brent and that they have honored us by adding spouses, children and grandchildren all of whom live Christ centered lives. As the years go by, we know that our posterity will increase at an even more rapid rate. Our greatest desire is that the legacy of the gospel which we received will continue to be the joy of our lives and their lives because it is being lived by all of our posterity in the generations to come. We want each member of our family to feel of the joy that we feel because of his or her goodness. We want all of the members of our family throughout the coming generations to stay close to the Lord and His teachings. He should always be their best friend. We want the gospel of Jesus Christ to be the welding power that will make our family an eternal family and that when we are all gathered together in a time to come, there will be no empty chairs.
Growing old is not always fun. They talk of the golden years and there are times when gold is not even adequate to describe the rapture of our hearts but there are also times when we feel more like common iron that is just rusting away. Being 74 and 72 as we are, has one big disadvantage. We find that our spirit is willing but our bodies are weak and sometimes right rebellious. But there is one thing that is very good. Our love for each other has grown and continues to grow. It is so very easy for us to say, “I love you” because it expresses how we really feel. Now that our children have left us, we still have each other and our major effort is to make each other happy. We carry with us those fond memories of our children from infancy to maturity. They were a joy for us to raise. We rejoice in their happy marriages. We are always happy to learn what is going on in their homes, school and work. As much as we love each other, we find plenty of room to spread our love to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Our interests in their welfare never wanes. Our prayers will never cease.
We thank you for making our 50 years a most wonderful time and a blessing of eternal consequence.
Just please remember that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a law of love, forgiveness, patience, understanding, kindness and even turning the other cheek. It is going the extra mile. It is living the golden rule.” Mark E. Peterson Please make this our law for we love you. We thank you for all you do for us.
Your parents and grandparents Violet and Ferren Bunker
Source:Brent Bunker