“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6). We often interpret the blessings and power of the Spirit of Elijah as applying mainly to family history and temple work. The Spirit of Elijah helps us remember our ancestors and gives us the desire and the strength to carry out the work of their salvation. However, not all fathers and mothers to whom the hearts of children might turn have passed on. The Spirit of Elijah is as much of a blessing and a force for good for the relationships between living parents and their children as it is for parents who are gone. The hearts of parents and children are so often at odds with each other. Children don't see or acknowledge all of the sacrifices that parents make to give their children a better life. Parents don't always realize the kind of damage that their flawed, overly domineering or overly neglectful parenting can be for their children. Kids don't always trust that sometimes mom and dad really do know best. Parents often base their decisions for their children's well-being on recollections of the world that they remember growing up in, and not on the world that their children actually have to live in. The Spirit of Elijah can turn this around. It can buoy up a parent's flagging strength and give them a second wind to deal with the challenges of addressing a child who is acting out with a renewed sense of wisdom and compassion and patience. The Spirit of Elijah can open the heart of a rebellious child so that they can see the value in their parents’ remonstrations and especially the deep and true and pure love that shines through their flaws and their failures. We all need the Spirit of Elijah just like we all need to have meaningful and properly aligned relationships with our fathers and mothers and with our sons and daughters. This Spirit is not just for the dead but for the living. Let us all be just as diligent with working for the salvation of our living relatives as we do for our dead.
