LIKE FATHER LIKE SON

The hour glass has been turned many times, but memory’s miracle quickly bridges decades to the days when he was first presented to the public. It didn’t seem to matter whether the observer was friend, family or acquaintance, whether they were speaking from kindness, pride or casualness one after another remarked how much he was his father’s junior. Now with the passing of years, the babe having become boy, man, father and now grandfather, we are left to wonder how much of the father is now in the child.

Evidence piles deeper and deeper upon the shoulders of the senior generation as almost daily further tests demonstrate how the actions and character of the parents will be visited upon their offspring. It seems like minute to minute we are reminded that we not only influence our children by the things we do, but likewise by those things we fail to do.

Upon the stones where the finger of God wrote the commandments which became the foundation of the Law, one stands out having been given with promise. Conditional upon honor given to father and mother the children of Israel would be able to have their days extended upon the land the Lord had given them. Through practice and precept we have come to understand that honor is one of those qualities that must be received before it can be returned. The wise parent who truly sews the seeds of honoring their children will have an abundance of honor return in the day of harvest.

Interestingly, as the pursuit of the ‘whys’ of our mortal experience expands we come closer to understanding the cause and effect relationship between the commandment of honoring one another and the promise given from our all-knowing Father in Heaven. We are coming to realize that there is a very definite relationship between an individual’s self-esteem generated by free-flowing familial honor and respect and the resultant quality and longevity of their sojourn on earth.

If, as a parent, I regard carefully how I treat my body and the elements I choose to engorge upon, I will in a major way be determining the subsequent eating and drinking habits of my children. As we play, work and grow together we will be laying the foundation upon which generations will build their lives. Brick by brick we are building lifestyles where offspring will either be masters of themselves and their environment or slaves to those out of control persuasions of the world.

Our children’s abilities to use the gift of language, either using their words to describe the beauties of nature in poetic phrases or as a tool for mocking and degrading society, will be to a large degree a reflection of the communication they have heard from their parents.

As children face life’s problems they will look upon them as opportunities or obstacles depending on whether they have witnessed mother and father grow with each rapidly resolved problem or whether they see them weighted down by an overwhelming accumulation of burdens as the waves of life surfaced and subsided during their formative years.

As the glass becomes less obscure and vision improves we are able to see that not only will our children have a tendency to treat others as they have been treated, but their decisions concerning the major purposes of life may be a direct result of a parent’s non-determination, rejection of that which is true or the consistent walking in the ways of truth and light.

Why should we despair at the realization of how rapidly the boy becomes that which the father has been?

Rise up!

Oh glorious thought!

What marvelous understanding!

What tremendous power for good!

All that I wish my child to become I simply have to be. A life of integrity, wisdom, joy, comfort, peace and harmony can all be theirs if I make them part of my daily walk.

Parents, herein lies our legacy of wealth, lovingly given to that child with honor untold who when rearing days are past can proudly proclaim: “I am like my parents, you know.”