Mine says I will hold the Keys To The Kingdom of Israel

SHORT ANSWER: Vague blessings lend themselves to broad interpretation, specific blessings don't. Privacy of "sacred secrets" can act as a form of "information control" within cloistered, guarded groups like the Latter Day Saints. Information Control is important for a system like Mormonism which is internally coherent, logical, and congruent but irrational when subjected to external testing. LONG ANSWER: Patriarchal Blessings are vague for the same reasons that Mormon Testimonies are so similar and Joseph Smith's prophecies became increasingly vague over time. And, why horoscopes and fortune cookie fortunes are so vague - the vaguer it is, the easier it is to "bend it" into the events that follow it. For example many years after receiving his patriarchial blessing someone in his 70's could say: "Yes indeed, I was INDEED called to a truly great work that would, "effect the emerging generation by making an old, discarded tongue new and alive again!" Yes indeed, in my lifetime I wrote 100's, no thousands, of lines of COBOL and FORTRAN code that became the foundation for many future accounting systems written in C++ and Visual Basic in THIS generation. You can put that one down as 'fulfilled!'" http://www.concernedchristians.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=42&func=view&id=75526&catid=10 http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon071.htm As for the privacy issue . . . this is probably for the same reason that no one is supposed to tell the secret name that they're given during the Temple Endowment ceremony - they don't want anyone to compare notes and find out that everyone of the same gender who went through the temple that day got exactly the same name. And to be fair and balanced, we Charismatic Christians have equally "goofy" and misguided practices in our culture. This silliness isn't limited to LDS Culture. In Charismatic Christianity this "Patriarchal Blessing" practice is called, "Personal Prophecy." And I've heard some really STUPID ones in my lifetime! Really, really, really dumb ones in fact. I've heard some that were hard not to laugh out loud at when they were given! Chalk it all up to fallen, broken, quirky, "squirrely" human nature I suppose . . . And like all things Joseph Smith, he synthesized from standing 19th Century Restorationist practices. In the case of the "Patriarchal Blessing", he synthesized from the 19th Century Revivalists from whom the 20th Century Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements sprung forth from. So once again, the LDS Church isn't as unique or "peculiar" as it thinks it is. And in both cases false prophecies and blessings fall apart when subjected to external tests (like evidence and reality). If something is "true" (that is "ultimately real") it will endure when subjected to external testing.

The privacy comes from not wanting to profane sacred things. I've quoted portions of my own blessing outside LdS circles. I have some extremely specific portions (such as speaking a foreign language on my mission) as well as some of the "standard" interpret however I want to.

I just may have been susceptible to things like that back then. And what a fertile field they had to work with. My family of 6.