Enjoyed the thoughts at stake conference tonight. All centered around the role of mothers, fathers, and grandparents in the home. How we need to make family a priority, to make our homes a safe place where everyone feels loved, to be an example to the rising generation and show them that eternal families are what we should hope for. Family is what it is all about.
Quoting Ezra Taft Benson and speaking of the father's role in the home (specifically related to his relationship with his wife) I found myself doing mental checkmarks. Yep, Scott does that. Check. Uh-huh, got that one down.
express your love for her.
put her welfare and self-esteem as a high priority in your life
be grateful that she is the mother of your children and the queen of your home, grateful that she has chosen homemaking and motherhood as the noblest calling of all.
recognize your wife's intelligence and her ability to counsel with you as a real partner
give her the opportunity to grow intellectually, emotionally, and socially as well as spiritually.
remember love can be nurtured and nourished by little tokens. [flowers, but also willingness to help with dishes, diapers, crying child, etc.]
("To the Fathers in Israel", President Ezra Taft Benson, Oct. 1987 General Conference)
I also thought of my wonderful dad. He is the epitome of each of these points above. He loves my mom immensely and does not hesitate to show it. In many, many ways. He takes care of her and I love to see that.
The speakers also touched on traditions and how the things that we did in our childhood families are very often the things we end up doing in our own families. I appreciate the little traditions that my dad did for me to show me his love . . .
- daddy daughter dates
- flowers delivered to the house just for me
- special nicknames
And now he carries on some of the traditions that his father started to show the women & girls in his life how much he cared
- shopping for easter dresses
- heart shaped box of See's chocolates on Valentine's Day
And finally, the closing song of tonight's meeting was Teach Me To Walk in the Light and I suddenly remembered when my dad and I sang this song together at my Young Womanhood Recognition meeting, 15 years ago. He was choked up then. And tonight I found myself holding back the tears as well from the sweet memories of that moment and knowledge of a father's love,
Thinking of you dad, especially today.
Love you.
