For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

- Mosiah 3:19

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

An ode to my father...

I received an email today from my dad requesting some help with a letter he was writing. As I normally do with things my dad writes, I read over his drafts and give him critical comments and feedback. And so I agreed. We have had a very decent solid intellectual relationship for a long time - he is my best friend and I am his intellectual sidekick. My father is a professor and personally, I think he's superman!

As I opened the document, it was a letter concerning a recommendation for restoration of Priesthood blessings for a person in my father's fold. My father is a Branch President and has been so for nearly my entire adult life. I was taken aback, and asked if I should even be reading it. My dad replied, simply, yes.

As I turned the passive voice in the active voice (my dad has a love affair with the passive construction), I could not help being moved by the letter and the efforts of the individual seeking a restoration of blessings. I realized two things fro this letter: 1) My father is far more observant and compassionate and motivated by a deep and abiding love for God's children than I previously supposed; and, 2) My father is more gentle, vulnerable, and completely trusting of God's wisdom and love than I previously supposed.

As I read the words my father used to describe this child of God, I could not help but feel a sense of deep love, not because it was his responsibility as a Priesthood leader, but the words conveyed a sense of love that I did not know my father was capable of.

I reflected on the many conversations that were steeped in theory about the nature of God's love -  about charity, and while I have been the recipient of my father's love, I somehow did not think he was capable of loving another person (outside of this family) with the same depth he loves me and his children.