Fathers & Sons

I spent some time reflecting today on all it means to be a father and how that has shaped my life as both a father and as a son.

I was amazingly blessed today to baptize a father and a son. Although it was the son who made the decision to be baptized first, he asked that his father enter the water first. I was impressed that he honored his father in that way. It’s no small decision to surrender one’s life to the God who created the universe and to choose, publicly, to make Him the Boss of one’s life. It showed a great level of respect when this particular son stepped aside and asked that his father proceed him in baptism. It made me think of the prophecy that the spirit of Elijah would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers.

I am blessed to have a father who has become my friend. He has taught me that we never stop learning and that wisdom is only granted to those willing to humble themselves enough to learn.

I am blessed to have an adult son who has become my friend; who has learned some hard lessons and has developed the wisdom to grow and learn from those around him as well. He has become a father, himself, who teaches his son the lessons that he has learned so that this next generation may learn from his father, rather than repeating the mistakes of the past.

I am blessed, also, to have a young son who sees me as the man I should be, rather than the man I am. He inspires me every day to try to live up to his image of me, though I fall miserably short.

I am, most of all, blessed to have a Father in Heaven, who loves me so much that He would send His Son to suffer and die that I might be freed from the sins and shortcomings of my human nature.

Truth be told, He is your Father too and He loves each of us more than we can possibly imagine, more than we love our own sons, which is beyond that which any of us could comprehend.