My Grandpa, Clarence James Cox

My Brother Derek sums my Grandpa Cox up nicely.

"For a devoted man of god, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather, whose mortal existence has come to an end. Many prayers were said, many tears have been shed and with out a doubt much love is spread. For him the work of our eternal father knows no end. There is peace and comfort in knowing he is safe and in good company. I cherish the time we spent together in this life and pray the next will bring memories just as great. He was a valient and humble servant of the lord and will continue to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have prayed and received personal revelation that these things are true. Our grandpa Jim Cox will be missed but never forgotten. May his rest be peaceful and his delight be great in so doing the work of the lord. In Jesus name Amen"



Grandma & Grandpa Cox

My Grandpa is one of the funniest people I know, I like to think I acquired part of my sense of humor from him!  I'm going to Miss his hello's, his hugs, his voice, his smile, his laugh, his jokes. I always loved how he'd ask "How are you?" and I'd respond "pretty good" and he'd always, always respond with "well I know you're perty". I'm going to miss that as well! I will always cherish my time spent with him, my memories of him and his stories! I take comfort in the fact that someday we will be reunited in Heaven and knowing that he is watching over us!


My Cousin Elijah upon hearing the news of my Grandpa's passing had this to say, it was so beautiful and reassuring that I feel compelled to share it.

"I was brought to tears to hear about our beloved Grandpa Cox. Of course it is moments like this that give a moment to pause and reflect about the grand design of the Heavens. It often can disrupt faith and bring us an aggravation towards Deity. However, I really hope that these moments can bring to us an antithesis thought: that is that God, in his divine love and charity, will indeed add unto your Grandfather kingdoms, dominions, principalities, and everlasting Glory. Remember that the sealing ceremony in which the Covenants of Abraham were pronounced upon your head are also pronounced upon your Grandfather’s head.

I think that one of the most comforting things to know of is the grand Atonement of Christ the Lord. He has breasted the uncertainty of death and has suffered for not only sin but has suffered the worst of every human experience. One of the other great facts is that God the Eternal Father is not without empathy either. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught the following at a funeral of one of the Elders of the Church, he stated:

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make himself visible,—I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another.

In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how He came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see.

These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible.

Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. And I want you to know that God, in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming His name, is not trifling with you or me.”

The prophet brings up two points the first is his words “that is the great secret.” So what is the great secret? It is much more than the fact that God is a man but it is that he is a Father. I always wondered why is Jesus Christ the head of the Church, why does the Holy Ghost visit men on the Earth, why is it that Jesus Christ created the Earth. Why was none of these responsibilities performed by God? I think the answer is because he delegated all responsibility except the responsibility of being a Father. Christ creates, Atones, ministers, and runs the Church so that God can be fully invested in the one thing he has not delegated. That one thing is prayer. We pray to the Father. We talk to our Father because he is literally our Father and loves us as a Father should.

The other thing the Prophet brings up is that wonderful fact of The Almighty’s willingness to give us eternal godhood. Your Grandfather can (and because of his faithfulness I have no doubt that he will) become a god himself. I cannot imagine a Father who would not want all for His children that he enjoys. Thus I can tell you that the doctrine is indeed that your Grandfather will for a time be without a body, but shortly he will enter into the millennium and then be brought through the veil into the everlasting presence of the Father and thus become like the Father is now, an Eternal being.

The great secret really is that The Father is closer to you and to your Grandfather than you think. He is much closer to all men then they realize. That is the great secret and because you know and understand the power of the ordinances you have the opportunity to testify of the great secret to your family."


Elijah is not my Grandpa's blood but my Grandpa treated him as such, he loved everyone equally and as if they were family. I will always admire him and aspire to be like him!