By Alan on Mar 17 in Blog tagged caring, caring involvement, child's potential, clear standards, family life, father's primary responsibilities, fatherhood, fathering, governance of the family, heavenly parents, high ideals for men, Honor thy Father, influence, Key principles and practices, left to man's wife, moral behavior, nurturing environment, power in righteousness, primary responsibility, Sean E. Brotherson, son or daughter, teaching, the Church, the live of their children, the school, worthy of honor | Comments Off
Key Principles and Practices in Fathering
“Honor Thy Father”
From SINAI long ago rang a sacred invitation from the God iof Israel. “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Exodus. 20: 12).
There is much to consider in this invitation and divine command. A perspective of fathering that embraces the divine injunction to “honor thy father” suggests a set of high ideals for men in family life. Indeed if men wish to receive honor in their efforts as fathers, then it is essential that they be worthy of honor.
Clear standards of moral behavior and caring involvement defines a father’s primary responsibilities in family life. The teaching and governance of the family must not be left to a man’s wife alone, to society, to school, or even the Church. To father a child is more than a biological act or fulfillment of a social role. To father a child is to accept a divine calling, a moral stewardship, and a lasting commitment across generations. A father’s calling is an eternal calling from which he is never released.
Fathers have the ability, for good or ill,
to exercise great power and influence in
the lives of their children and families.
Power alone, however, is not what a father truly needs, nor does he need only the ability to influence and direct a child’s life, thoughts, and feelings. 
A father needs the power to bless his children. Men do not bless by the mere exercise of power. They bless only by the exercise of power in righteousness. To be a holy figure in the life of a child, in the life of a family, requires an association with powers that exist beyond our own mortal abilities. Power in righteousness comes only as we associate ourselves through prayer and sacred living with the powers of heaven. “The powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.” D&C 121: 36
The importance of fatherhood and in shaping men and children is linked to our
Heavenly Father’s divine plan of happiness. The divine pattern for human development establishes that family life is the primary context for the unfolding of our eternal potential. The journey that each child of God undertakes in the plan of salvation is a developmental journey, a journey of progression, designed to help us acquire spiritual knowledge and character virtues that allow us to grow toward perfection.
Fathers may engage differing aspects of care and involvement at different developmental periods in a child’s life, 
such as playmate and nurturer during infancy and interpreter of the outside world during middle childhood. The importance of fathers nurturing and supporting each child’s potential through each phase is affirmed; that the bonds of parents and children are revealed “in family relationships, in attributes and virtues developed in a nurturing environment, and in loving service.” As fathers practice these essential principles in their lives and relationships, they fulfill their own potential and guide the rising generation toward achieving the divine potential that resides in each of us as “a beloved spirit son or daughter of Heavenly parents.”
Sean E. Brotherson
“Successful Marriages and Families”
For The Family
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