52 Blessings - Fathers

Some of us have good fathers and can readily feel love.  We know what it feels like to have someone deeply concerned for our happiness.

Some of us don't have good fathers and it's hard to imagine being loved.  We don't know what it feels like to have our welfare and growth as someone's main concern.    

Knowing that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us perfectly and whose whole purpose concerns our well-being brings happiness to the fathered, who knows what a father's love feels like, as well as hope to the unfathered, who must imagine.  

I see evidences of Heavenly Father's love for me every day when I pay attention.  When I ask Him about it, He helps me to feel, recognize, and understand that love.  It is a great blessing to be able to trust Him and it's reassuring to know my well-being is His concern.  

I am one of those who had to imagine what a good father does, and it has taken patience and effort to understand Heavenly Father's love.  However, this video reaffirms what I've come to feel and know:

Today I love nothing more than watching Calvin as a father and grandfather.  Our kids are lucky to have such a good dad.  He's been willing to provide for, preside over, protect them, and to admit his mistakes. He goes to great lengths to let all of his children know that he loves them.  Consequently, they trust him. Likewise, Calvin had a good dad.  

It is a great joy to see Ray, Abe, Ty, and Joe as parents.  They father with purpose, patience, responsibility, and great love.  Because of their examples, I imagine their children will grasp Heavenly Father's love for them easily.

Just before Henry was born the doctor asked Grace if she wanted immediate skin-to-skin contact with the baby.  Grace said, "I want you to hand the baby to Abe when he's born.  He missed Clara's birth so I want him to hold him first."

The look on Abe's face and the tears on Grace's cheek personify love. And if it as Joseph Fielding Smith said (and I believe it is), "I feel most assuredly that our Father in heaven is far more interested in a soul—one of his children—than it is possible for an earthly father to be in one of his children. His love for us is greater than can be the love of an earthly parent for his offspring," then we are so very loved and cared for. That makes me very happy.