My Son Be Faithful in Christ

Normally on Sundays I write a letter to one of my children, but I thought I would deviate today and write a few words about my dad for Father’s Day. When I was in about fourth grade, my dad sat me down with an encyclopedia and opened to the page on United States Supreme Court justices and said something this effect, “Son, this is what you are going to be when you grow up.” About twenty-five years later and as a computer programmer now the prospects aren’t looking too good for me to be selected for that position. But I remember the conversation because it was one of many evidences of the fact that my dad believed in me, even if it was far from merited. I remember another time a few years later when he told me this, “For the next piano recital, I want you to learn a Rachmaninoff piece on your own and when you finish your planned songs just lift up your finger and say ‘one more’ and play it.” He just knew that Rachmaninoff was supposed to be one of the hardest to play on the piano and so he figured I could do it. Well, I didn’t fulfill that recommendation either—there is no way I could have learned one of those songs then on my own—but again it was to me a sign of his confidence in my potential. The fact that he is one of the few who actually reads this blog every day is just one more way I know that my dad will always believe in me, even if I never amount to much.

                While my dad had some specifics in his hopes for how my life might turn out, I believe what he wanted most for me was to become whatever it was the Savior wanted me to be in my life. Mormon wrote this simple exhortation to his son Moroni: “My son, be faithful in Christ,” and I believe that has always been my dad’s greatest hope for me as well (Moroni 9:25). I distinctly remember a conversation in a car ride in Tennessee when I was 18 in which he talked about the things I would do in my life and how I needed to work to defend the Savior and His Church. He taught me this not just in word but in his example to me of diligent priesthood service, faithful temple work, and daily devotion to the gospel and the Savior. He showed me what it meant to serve and care for others in a priesthood quorum as I was his home teaching companion. I knew the importance of the temple implicitly before I was able to go for the first time because I watched my mother and him frequently go there to serve the Lord. And I knew the central place the gospel should be in our lives as we focused many of our conversations around the teachings of the gospel.    

When I served a mission in France he and my mother both wrote me without fail every week. Besides telling me about my cat and how he needed me home to cut the lawn for him, he frequently encouraged me to work hard in the service of the Lord. Mormon also wrote to his son, “And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God” (Moroni 9:6). My dad said the same thing in his own way in one of his letters: “There is a story told of a man dying and he met Peter at the gate to heaven. Peter let him in and they walked down the beautiful streets and on every side there were mansions bigger than anything on earth. This man was totally amazed at how beautiful everything was. As they kept on going they came to a house that was barely framed. No windows were in, the roof was not done and there were no floors. The man asked whose house this was and Peter said ‘This is your house.’ The man said, ‘But it’s not done, it’s not even close.’ Peter said, ‘I know, the angels stopped working on it the minute you stopped serving.’” He added to me, “I know of course this would not happen to you but pass it on.” I tried my best to never stop serving in the work of the Lord those two years. His final words in his last letter were these: “Work hard one more week.” He and my mom were always examples of continual service in the Lord’s work. I hope to at least be able to live up to their example of service to the Savior, no matter what I end up being when I finally grow up! Thanks Dad for always believing in me and helping me consecrate my life to the Savior.