“But Jesus answered
and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Matthew 4:4
If God asked you to do something that went against what you
have been taught by parents or church leaders, or both, what would you do? Would God ask you to do something that went
contrary to Church Leaders?
Our family has been greatly blessed through meeting, knowing
and associating with a young man named Connor.
One of our daughters and her best friend met Connor through a social
media site for young adults who are seeking Christ. They invited him to come to our home for
scripture study. He is an amazing young
man. He has added much to our family and much to our study of the gospel. He has a noble heart that seeks truth. He loves the Lord. Our family loves him.
Connor grew up in a very affluent family rife with
dysfunction. He was denied serving an
LDS mission due to injuries sustained in a car accident. He is a true disciple
of Christ. He is seeking the Lord.
One day as Connor was eating lunch in a public place he
heard a voice say to him, “You need to get a tattoo.” After he thought for a minute the voice said
more clearly in his mind, “Connor, you need to get a tattoo.” Connor has never desired to get a tattoo and
has been taught his entire life that tattoos are “wrong” (LDS leaders teach the
following in regards to tattoos: “A
tattoo is graffiti on the temple of the body,” President Gordon B. Hinckley and
in Mormon Doctrine, pg. 775 it states
“The practice is a desecration of the human body and should not be permitted.”) Yet, he believed that the voice that spoke to him was God, so,
he responded, “if this is you, God, and if you really want me to get a tattoo,
then I need you to give me the sign of a Dove by the end of the day.”
The voice then instructed Connor to go home and he did so
immediately. When he arrived home (a few minutes’ drive) Connor was instructed
to check the front porch and again did so immediately. Sitting on the front door was a package for
his father. He brought them in an opened them out of habit. Inside the package
was a collector’s album cover picturing a dove.
The time from when he first heard the voice until he received the sign
he had sought was roughly one hour.
Connor did his research, if he was going to get a tattoo he
wanted it to be well done. He could not deny that he had heard God’s voice and that
getting a tattoo was God’s will.
However, he was unsure of what tattoo to get, what artist to go to and
where to get it on his body. As Connor
researched artists and pondered on what to get and where to get it he was afraid
of being deceived. He knew that God was
asking him to do this and he wanted to make sure everything he did to
accomplish this task was in accordance with the will of God.
Eventually he found a respected, talented tattoo artist and
added his name to the waiting list.
During the months long wait Connor told the Lord that this tattoo was
going to be very expensive and that if he was really supposed to get it then he
needed a job to be able to pay for it.
The Lord responded by immediately leading him to employment.
When they meet for the initial consultation, the artist
asked what he wanted. Connor told her, a dove. She asked if he want it perched
or in flight. He told her in flight. She asked where he wanted it, so he told
her the area. She asked no more details, and he offered none. He left the final
design up to her. The day of the tattoo, he expressed his concerns to God that
by entrusting her to the design she may unknowingly not do what God had in
mind. It was then that he was told to "just go with what she has in mind".
The final confirmation that everything he had chosen was God's will came after
the tattoo had already begun. The artist told him that she had gone through
around a dozen stencils for the dove, but none of them felt right and she threw
them away. She said she finally settled on the one she was doing because the
design reminded her of God and felt peaceful. She said it felt like a religious
thing. She had previously eluded that she was not religious. But at that moment
he knew God had guided him to that very moment.
Connor now has a beautiful dove over his heart, but more importantly he is striving to live by every words that proceeds forth from the mouth of God!
