Peter

In December 1996, David, Peter, and LeAnne Goodman died in a tragic car accident in Sandy, Utah.  They were three children among twelve in a family known around the world for their musical talents.  I was Peter’s friend and classmate at the time of his death, and the accident was a terrible shock for me and for many in our community.  I remember Peter as a loving, happy, and playful boy—he was simply good and guileless.  His sister described him as “full of compassion” and wondered “how Peter could love me as much as he did.”  I thought of him as I sat in the hospital yesterday looking at our newborn boy and wondered about his future.  What challenges will he face?  What talents will he have?  What do I need to teach him?  I thought of Peter Goodman because we named this new son of ours Peter, in part in memory of my friend and in part in remembrance of the great apostle of the meridian of time.  One of the thoughts that came as I stared as his tiny newborn body was the simple need to teach my son to be a good man.  In all that he learns, what he needs to learn most is not how to excel in worldly standards but how to be good and just and true in the eyes of the Lord.  The world tells us to go from “Good to Great” but to the Lord, to be great is to be good.

               Helaman, the son of Helaman, explained to his sons Nephi and Lehi why he gave them their names: “Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good” (Helaman 5:6).  Helaman wanted his sons to remember the original Lehi and Nephi and their works, but he especially wanted them to remember that their original fathers were good.  One article I read recently suggests that Nephi’s name may have even meant “good, fair, delightful, or beautiful.” And so Helaman’s words to his sons may have even been reminding them that even Nephi’s name connotated goodness. I hope that as my Peter looks to his namesakes—both my friend and the Savior’s chief apostle—he will remember and know that they too were good.  The image to me that encapsulates the character of Peter the apostle is that of him finding “a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple.”  When the man asked Peter for money, the apostle “fastening his eyes upon him” said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:1-6).  He was bold yet also full of compassion, always “ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh [him] a reason of the hope that is in [him]” (1 Peter 3:15). 

            The words of Reb Saunders about his brilliant son Danny in Chaim Potok’s The Chosen perhaps best sum up my hopes for Peter: “A mind like this I need for a son? A heart I need for a son, a soul I need for a son, compassion I want from my son, righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain, that I want from my son, not a mind without a soul.”  As my son cultivates his own mind and develops other talents recognized by the world, I pray that he will cultivate first those traits of love and compassion and faith that really count, that it may be said of him as of Nephi and Lehi of old: he was good.