[Nfbk] Good Fathers

[Joey Couch]

"Good Fathers"

The son of a renowned scientist recalls a powerful teaching moment
that strengthened his relationship with his father. When the son
entered college, the father encouraged him to follow in his footsteps
and major in physics. One day the son was struggling with a complex
mathematical problem and asked for his father’s help. They went to the
blackboard they kept in the basement, and the father started writing.

Suddenly, the father stopped and asked: “Hal, we were working on this
same kind of problem a week ago. You don’t seem to understand it any
better now than you did then. Haven’t you been working on it?” When
the son replied that he had not, the father questioned further: “When
you walk down the street, when you’re in the shower, when you don’t
have to be thinking about anything else, isn’t this what you think
about?” Hal confessed that he did not.

It was a very tender and poignant moment, because Hal knew how much
his father hoped he would become a scientist. The father paused for a
moment and said: “Hal, I think you better get out of physics. You
ought to find something you love so much that when you don’t have to
think about anything, that’s what you think about.” Hal took his
father’s advice and went on to a distinguished career as a professor.
Even though the father would have liked his son to share his passion
for science, most of all he wanted his son to do what was best for
him.1

Some fathers want their children to be just like them. Most fathers
hope their children become better than they are. And good fathers are
able to put their aspirations aside and help their children define and
achieve their own life’s dreams; they let go of their own desires and
encourage their children to go after theirs.

Wise counsel, a worthy example, and empowering love are the building
blocks of good fatherhood. Truly, a father’s work is never done
because it lives on in the lives of his children.



1. See Gerald N. Lund, “Elder Henry B. Eyring: Molded by ‘Defining
Influences,’” Ensign, Sept. 1995, 10, 12.








-- 
Joey Couch
phone 606-216-8033.
email ki4vjd at gmail.com
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