Born of Goodly Parents

Last night we attempted to gather our children for scripture study, and I handed my son my phone to read from the Come, Follow Me manual. He read these words, “Even before we were born, we were part of a family—the family of our heavenly parents. That pattern continues on earth. Families here, at their best, are meant to echo the perfect pattern in heaven. Of course, there are no guarantees that earthly families will be ideal or even functional.” Right as he was reading that last sentence my seven-year-old son came flying across the room after having jumped off chair and tumbled loudly on the ground in front of us. We had a good laugh at the perfect timing of his acrobatics, and we wondered indeed if we were even functional! For most of our attempted scripture study our two youngest continued these types of gymnastics, running as fast as they could across the kitchen floor like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat. I was grateful that they were at least present in the same room since other children weren’t even there. But we did it and emphasized this teaching from the proclamation: “Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” We do not always live those principles in our home as well as we should, but we are trying!  

                In the most recent general conference Elder Rasband spoke about the Family Proclamation. In it his made this statement, “The proclamation states, ‘Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness.’ The Book of Mormon provides a second witness to this truth. In the first verse of the first chapter, we read, ‘I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents.’ How many of us have started the Book of Mormon—and started again and again—and in the process committed those words to memory? Commit them to heart.” I wasn’t sure what he meant when I first heard that. What is it that he wants us to commit to our heart? We know that many people are not born of goodly parents and are not nurtured and taught by parents as they should. As I consider his statement further, I think in this paragraph he was speaking specifically to parents; in other words, he wants parents to commit these words to heart because we should each strive to be “goodly parents” to our children. We should ask ourselves if this is how our own children would describe us. We may not be able to, as children, change our family situation as it relates to our parents, but parents can change how they teach and love their children. Our goal should be to be “goodly” like Sariah and Lehi were.

                What kind of parents were Sariah and Lehi? Several passages give us a glimpse of how they felt towards their children. When Nephi and his brothers came back from getting the plates later than expected, Nephi recorded, “My mother, Sariah, was exceedingly glad, for she truly had mourned because of us…. When we had returned to the tent of my father, behold their joy was full, and my mother was comforted” (1 Nephi 5:1, 7). They were full of love and concern for their children. We see this further when Lehi shared the vision of the tree of life with his sons. Nephi summarized, “And he did exhort them then with all the feeling of a tender parent, that they would hearken to his words, that perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them, and not cast them off; yea, my father did preach unto them” (1 Nephi 8:37). We likewise should encourage our children “with all the feeling of a tender parent” as we teach and serve them. When they were on the boat, Nephi recorded the great sorrow of his parents because of the wickedness of their children: “My parents being stricken in years, and having suffered much grief because of their children, they were brought down, yea, even upon their sick-beds. Because of their grief and much sorrow, and the iniquity of my brethren, they were brought near even to be carried out of this time to meet their God” (1 Nephi 18:17-18). Sariah and Lehi loved their children deeply, even Laman and Lemual, and when these two sons rejected the Lord their parents were filled with sorrow. But they continued to teach and try to help their children. Lehi pled with them, “I would that ye would hearken unto my words. O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound…. Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the earth” (2 Nephi 1:12-14). He implored them to accept the Lord with all their heart. Lehi and Sariah were indeed goodly parents, loving their rebellious sons to the end and urging them not to reject the Lord. Nephi’s description of his parents invites those of us who are parents to ask this simple question: Would our children also describe us as “goodly”?