The Power Of A Father’s Love

Jun 2010 Issue

By Ann Kearns
We need not wonder how Jesus learned to teach or to heal the sick. He plainly told us that He learned all His lessons by example. He watched His Father act and interact with those around Him, and then He began to do “likewise.” (See John 5: 19-20). If fathers are to show their children “all things” that they should do, what should be on their list of things to teach?

When raising kind, diligent children who are strong in the gospel, Latter-day Saint fathers know they should have family prayer, daily scripture study, and a weekly family home evening. In addition, Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “likewise important are the deep but informal moments of sharing religious feelings between parents and their children” (The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book, 122).

In my childhood home I was blessed to have a worthy example of a father’s love as he followed this pattern established by our Heavenly Father. I had hours of tutoring as he spent one on one time with me.

My father was a small town attorney. When I was fifteen, his secretary quit, and he couldn’t find anyone qualified to help him. He desperately needed assistance, so I began coming after school, answering the phone and typing. I learned secretarial skills, but the memory I treasure the most was feeling my father’s love as he taught me. I remember once when we finished reading a particularly trying land description, he put down his glasses and asked, “How is your school work coming?” I confessed that geometry was a puzzle for me. “Let’s see what we can do about it,” he said. Then he explained the theorem that was giving me trouble.

An exemplary father wants to pass on his devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the ways that he demonstrates that devotion is by following the prophets. By doing this, his children are likely to follow his example.

Elder Jeffrey Holland tells about a young girl, Elizabeth Claridge McCune, who attended Stake Conference in Nephi, Utah in 1864. President Brigham Young presided and she was part of a group of young girls, dressed in white, who were given reserved seats on the front rows. She enjoyed the sermons until the afternoon session when President
Young announced that he would read a few names of men who were called to go as missionaries to the ‘Muddy.’ Everyone in the congregation knew of the privations they would suffer if they accepted the call.

Elizabeth said: “I did not hear another name except ‘Samuel Claridge.” Then how I sobbed and cried. . . The father of the girl who sat next to me was also called. Said my companion, ‘What is it you are crying about? It doesn’t make me cry. I know my father won’t go.’ Well, there is the difference,’ said I. ‘I know that my father will go and that nothing could prevent him, and I should not own him as a father if he would not go when he is called.’” (Broken Things to Mend, 105 -106).

A true father’s love is stronger than his worry over financial matters, his need for personal fulfillment or even the fear of death. President James E. Faust gave an example of just such a father. In 1989, an earthquake in Armenia killed over 30,000 people in four minutes. A distraught father ran to the school where his boy had gone earlier in the day. He found the school reduced to rubble. He went to the corner where his son’s classroom had been and began digging through the rubble.

He was warned by fireman that there might be explosions and ensuing fire, and was urged to leave the searching to emergency crews, but he was driven by his promise to his son, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!”

“In the 38th hour of digging, he thought he heard his son’s voice. “Armand!” he called out. Then he heard, “Dad!?! It’s me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told ‘em that if you were alive, you’d save me and when you’d saved me they’d be saved” (“’Them That Honour Me I Will Honour’,” Ensign, May 2001, 45).

My father, Elder Claridge and Armand’s father all exemplified the attributes and love shown by Jesus Christ. He learned these by example from His Father. Incorporating these attributes in our lives pays homage to our Savior, but will also show our Heavenly Father our appreciation for His Celestial love and divine tutelage of his son, Jesus Christ.