The Family Proclamation states the following:
By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their familiesThe word protection stands out to me today. I believe it is of utmost importance for fathers in our day to protect their families by teaching moral discipline. This is something my father did for me and I am forever grateful.
Paul just recently taught a lesson on moral discipline from Elder Christofferson's last conference talk. In preparing for the lesson Paul asked me, "so what made you want to choose the right"? My honest answer was ..... "I didn't want my parents to get mad at me".
There is nothing wishy washy about my dad and so there were no fine lines on the moral standards we were expected to uphold as a family.
There was no question on what was right and what was wrong because it was frequently discussed in our home.
My parents were legendary in their commitment to protect their children even to the point of marching into a movie theater and dragging teenagers out of an R-rated movie, ringing our friend's doorbells looking for us past curfew, and requesting that we go back upstairs and change our outfit while our dates were left waiting in the front hall. Needless to say it wasn't until I was a parent myself that I really appreciated those efforts.
But here I am today thanking them. I suppose I stayed "in line" for the same reason the horses stayed on the trail..... because of my dad. And I'll also add that he was a pretty great provider and still fun to hang out with but I already wrote about that .
More Wordfull Wednesday here
I'm so glad you pointed out about teaching moral discipline! I taught that conference talk in Relief Society this past Sunday. It is such a wonderful talk.
ReplyDeleteSo I have to ask: What is your natural hair color, blond or brown? ☺
What a wonderul post - a great tribute to your dad :) I love the photo of the two of you riding together!
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha!
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to figure out my natural hair color..... when I was young it was blond then I wanted it more blond and kept highlighting it until i didn't know what was growing out of my head.
I told my hair dresser to dye it to the color of my roots and I was really surprised to how dark it was..... I haven't touched it for 18 months and I am discovering it is actually growing out auburn with a bit of gold and yes gray (yikes!) coming through.
But I made the decision to let it be what it was meant to be over a year ago and I'm even hoping to remain courageous enough to stick to it even if I gray early
It is weird how I'm still trying to get use to it. I was blond (or fake blond) for so much of my life that even my kids are asking me when I'm going to switch it back to "normal"
Oh I remember going to your farm. And I remember when your Dad was my sunday school teacher and we all loved his great stories:)
ReplyDeleteAAl.. that is a sweet memory! I loved the picture and showed it to my friends from Virginia who has horses.
ReplyDeleteMom saw the picture from a distance and said, "What is she doing on a horse.. she just had a baby!"
See Al. you are as pretty now as you were at age 17.. I told Mom this was an old picture! Miss you and your family.. can't wait to see you all in a couple weeks.
Love, grateful Dad