Homing Pigeons

In our church there are always daddy/daughter activities and father/son campouts, and even mother/daughter activities.  So this month our stake decided to have a special Mother's/Sons outing.  We met at the church and the stake primary president gave a touching talk about the Stripling
Warriors.  She gave each boy this picture to put in their rooms along with the story on the back of the picture.

The picture is called "Farewell My Stripling Warrior" by Del Parson

and based on the scripture Alma 56:47, "Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them."

Inspiration for the painting came while the artist and his wife were at the airport saying farewell to their son as he parted for a mission.  As the young man embraced his mother for a final goodbye, she was hanging on, having a very hard time letting go.  He was hugging her, but he was looking beyond her toward the airplane-obviously ready to go.

It brought to mind the story of the Stripling Warriors and those 2,000 young men who faithfully faced the unknown. They too were prepared in spirit and in faith. They knew that the things their mothers had taught them were true, and willingly marched into battle with strength and courage.

Those mothers, as mothers today, must have hoped they had done all they could to prepare their sons. Scriptural account offers great comfort as all 2,000 Stripling Warriors miraculously returned home having never doubted the things their mothers knew were true.  In the painting, the young man's shield is representative of his mother's angelic wing.  While the shield is a form of physical protection, so too, is a mother's angelic love a protection granted by our Heavenly Father.  Taught by their mothers, modern-day young men will say with faith too, "Behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer than we should fall."


After this talk by the Stake Primary President, Mr. Spainhower spoke to the boys.  He brought with him a live homing pigeon for each and every boy.  He talked to the boys about the characteristics of the homing pigeon and their built-in GPS system.  He encouraged the boys to stay on track in their lives by also using the GPS system:

G:  Get your bearings and figure out where you need to go.
P:  Surround yourself with people who are going the same place as you ant to go and stay with them.
S:  Stay on course.

Then each mother wrote a note to her son and we taped it around the leg of our homing pigeon.  When everyone was ready, we let the pigeons go, and then we drove about 10 minutes to the Spainhower's home where our pigeons arrived and the boys got their notes.  We had ice cream and also played a Maori stick game.  Kason & I sat across from each other with 2 PVC pipes in our hands and you tap them and throw them to each other in rhythm.  It was really fun and Kason and I were really good at it.  It was a special night to spend with my boy.

Pigeons Flying