At the time I wrote this I had just found out that my dad was going to have emergency quadruple bypass heart surgery. I wanted to be there with him but the constraints of finances and money would not allow it, and he and my mom insisted that everything was going to be fine and there was no reason for me to drop everything and come. Still, my heart reached out across the miles and I felt the need to write several songs and send them to him.

This particular song, as the summary states, is the greeting from the School of the Prophets, as given in Doctrine and Covenants 8:133. In our family, however, it has been used as a covenant of true friendship.

Art thou a brother?
I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
In token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant,
In which covenant I receive you to fellowship.

In a determination that is fixed,
Immovable, and unchangeable,
To be your friend and brother
Through the grace of God in the bonds of love.

To walk in all the commandments of God
Blameless, in thanksgiving,
Forever and ever.
Amen.