I first recall being introduced to Doctrine and Covenants 14:7 when I was a freshman at Sanger High School. A fellow student, Cassia, shared with me that it was her favorite scripture. Its simple prescription provided remedy when she lacked hope in her own strength and ability in understanding the complexities of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.” While she may not have understood all of God‘s laws and doctrines, she knew by her tender heart and love of the Savior that she could keep His commandments and follow Him to the end.

“And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”

Doctrine and Covenants 14:7

I was raised by a strong man with a brilliant engineering mind. I grew up observing my father being able to make just about anything work. Between his inspired brilliance to invent, and his shear will to move forward, I saw him work out equations and solutions to engineering problems like no one else I have ever known. I heard him often referred to by his peers as a man of creative vision beyond what most could achieve. He had the gift to see it in his mind, and know it could be done, far before the wisdom or the technology of the time could see it through. When it was accomplished, most could still not understand, but the argument was over. It was done.

Dad, William Richard Malcolm, was a simple guy. He saw complex things simply. When things were not simple, he had the endurance to simplify complexity. He never would have attempted to put a square peg in a round hole, but if he needed it to fit, he would have thrown that peg up on his lathe and cut it to fit with perfection. The round peg was inside that square and he could see it, like so many things, with childlike faith.

Once my father described his process of invention to me thus, “I see something in my mind, a solution to a problem, and it sits there in my head until I have worked out how to get from the problem to the solution. It sometimes takes days or even years, but once I have seen the solution I work it until I have connected the problem to it, and then it is really quite simple. It was there all along.”

Dad was a self-educated genius well known in irrigation industry circles as the inventor of most impact sprinklers and many water and energy saving technologies and principles still being applied today. His gift of the Spirit that brought about so much good and advancement for the irrigation of crops and mass production of food ultimately lead to the granting of seventeen U.S. patents and many many more developments over several industries to benefit mankind. He was blessed of God with the vision to see the simplicity of the solution, and was tasked with working out how to get there.

The revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith to David Whitmer, at Fayette, New York in June 1829, contains a simple formula to attaining the greatest of all the gifts of God. “Seek to bring forth and establish my Zion. Keep my commandments in all things. And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:6-7).

This is God’s plan of happiness for us. As President Russell M. Nelson has taught, “Under God’s great plan of happiness, families can be sealed in temples and be prepared to return to dwell in His holy presence forever. That is eternal life!” (General Conference April 2012). And how do we get to life eternal? We keep the commandments and endure to the end.

“Under God’s great plan of happiness, families can be sealed in temples and be prepared to return to dwell in His holy presence forever. That is eternal life!”

President Russell M. Nelson

The fourth article of faith declares, “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” If we exercise faith to repentance and receive the ordinances of the priesthood which are so freely available to us, repentantly renewing our covenants regularly by the taking of sacramental emblems, His body and blood, this is how we follow Him, and this is how we endure. It is as simple as that. The solution and the means by which we attain eternal life has always been there.

Being my dad’s son I have been blessed with some of his gifts to see solutions, often long before I can formulate how to bridge the gap between my current position and the place I need to be. Being Father’s son, I know that if I keep His commandments and endure to the end, He will light my path, and in ways simple enough for my finite mind to understand, guide us all to infinite glory and promised life eternal. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.