Knowing My Father That He Was a Just Man

 I was struck by the first sentence of the book of Enos today as I studied the few words he left us in the Book of Mormon.  It appears that the whole impetus for his repentance and seeking of the Lord came from two things in particular: “I, Enos, knowing my father that he was a just man—for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Enos 1:1).  First, he knew that his father was a righteous man.  That was I believe the beginning of his testimony; because he knew of the goodness of his father Jacob, he was then led to ponder and believe the things his father taught.  Here I believe we learn a great lesson on how to raise children in the gospel from Jacob: first we ourselves must be righteous and keep the commandments of God, and second we must teach the things of the Lord to our children.  If we only do the second without the first, though, then our teaching will have little power.  It is as our children see the effect of the gospel in us, as they see us and feel of our goodness that they will have a desire to listen to our teachings about the gospel. 

                I was reminded last night just how much our children watch us and want to follow us.  My five-year-old was in the middle of eating a bowl of cereal when he got up and went to grab something.  He got a piece of paper and drew a few things on it, and then he took the paper and put it next to the cereal bowl as he sat back down to keep eating.  When I inquired as to what he was doing he said, “I’m reading a magazine while I eat, just like you always do Dad!”  That small habit of mine—to often read something while I eat—is not anything I would have expected my children to notice or care about.  It was a reminder that our children all have a mimetic desire to be like us and to do things like we do them, and I know I need to be more vigilant in setting an example in the important matters of love and patience and kindness as I interact with them.  I get the sense from Enos’s words that his father Jacob was not one who forced or tried to compel Enos—rather, the righteous father set an example, taught his son, and then let those two things nurture in Enos a desire to have the same kind of life like his father.  Jacob did not try to control his children but surely taught them as he had the Nephites: “Cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life” (2 Nephi 10:23).  Perhaps Jacob wondered if his words or example were making a difference in the life of Enos before this time when Enos became truly converted, but I imagine he trusted in the Lord that “without compulsory means” his teachings would make a difference in the life of Enos (Doctrine and Covenants 121:46).  Jacob quoted from Isaiah 55:1-2 in 2 Nephi 9:50-51, and perhaps he was encouraged by the Lord’s statement about His own teachings at the end of that same chapter as Isaiah: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).  The Lord knows that His words will go forth and accomplish the thing He desires—they will change hearts and assist in His great work of bringing souls back to Him—and we should likewise trust that our example and teachings and words to our children will, eventually, have a powerful effect upon them for good as it was for Enos.  They will not come back void.