Fathers

Excerpts from "The Role of Fathers - Ensign January 1974, President A. Theodore Tuttle Of the First Council of the Seventy

The father exercises his spiritual leadership in the home by calling his family to prayer each morning and evening. Weekly family home evening, likewise, is called and presided over by the father, though all others participate.

The father is the protector of the home. He guards it against the intrusion of evil from without. Formerly he protected his home with weapons and shuttered windows. Today the task is more complex. Barred doors and windows protect only against the intrusion of a corporeal creature.

Fathers, you will have to live close to the Lord. Develop a sensitivity to the impressions of the Spirit.

The father is to be an example of the highest Christian virtues. To walk uprightly in the admonition of the Lord requires not only patience and forbearance, but an exercise in constant practice of all the Christian virtues by each family member. Perhaps the Lord knew this when he instituted the family.

In the family relationship, we find our best laboratory in which to practice celestial living.