My brethren and sisters and friends, to answer a number of questions that have been put to me lately after one year and numerous experiences, this is still the challenge that it ever was. I stand before you most humble and dedicated in an attempt to convey to you the feelings of my heart on this special day. I, too, seek an interest in your faith and prayers.

I am wondering if you good sisters here in this building and listening in would pardon me if I visited with your husbands and the dads for just a few moments.

Father Substitutes for Mother

Every once in a while there comes into the life of each father and husband a tremendous challenge, and some weeks ago it was one of these challenges that brought me to a greater realization of my responsibility as both father and husband. I am sure my experience is not unlike some that many of you here today have had.

It all happened this way. My wife one day, in her interest to go shopping with one of her close friends in the neighborhood, asked if I would be kind enough to attend to the household chores for about four hours during her absence, besides tending our smallest daughter. I assured her I was most anxious to do what I could as a priesthood bearer and as a loving father and husband. And I will have to confess there was a selfish interest at heart, thinking as I did that perhaps here was an opportunity to catch up on some of my own projects.

Well, now, I want to tell you, that was a day I shall never forget. Let me just give you an accounting of my accomplishments on that afternoon:

I answered the telephone 15 times. Thirteen of those calls were for our teenage daughters.
I shouted, "Don't Kellie," (that's our five-year-old) 43 times.
I spread bread with jelly 19 times. Some of my youngest daughter's little friends were visiting with her at the time.
I stopped 9 different quarrels.
I wiped noses 12 times.
I tied shoes 8.
I shut and opened doors 53 times.
I bandaged 6 different fingers.
I answered 11 questions.

And as well as I can figure at this point, I ran approximately 2 1/2 miles without ever going out-of-doors.

Now, brethren, I ask you, how long has it been since you stood in the place of your good wife? For example, two or three days following this little episode, I took this same group of wild Indians to the grocery store and attempted, as all mothers and housewives do, to fill the grocery basket. There was another challenge, to keep one youngster from digging into the cookie box, while another picked up, dropped, and broke a jar of pickles, and the third in the meantime became lost and, in her anxiety to find her father, shouted so that all the neighborhood could hear, "Daddy, where are you?"

Brethren, fathers, priesthood bearers, I tell you that I sincerely believe that my day is as long and nerve-racking as any represented here. But I wouldn't trade my job and I don't believe most of you would, involved as it might be, for that of a good wife who manages the home, supervises a family of children twelve hours a day and more at times, not to speak of a few other little responsibilities that engage her time from morning until night.

I wish today, brethren, that my wife's husband could remember every evening when he comes home that, no matter how tired he is or how hard he has worked, she has labored just as hard. And no matter how disappointed he may be with the things that have gone on during the day, she has an equal reason to be tired and discouraged with the load of her multitudinous and hectic responsibilities.

If my wife's husband could always realize this, I believe he would try even harder than he does to forget his own troubles and would try to bring into his home a spirit of love, fun, optimism, and assurance that would make every member of his family glad to be alive.

There are a number of other things that I wish my wife's husband would do as he views this lovely creature that he has taken unto himself as a bride for time and all eternity—that he would continue to court her and respect her as he has promised to do because of his genuine love and appreciation for her.

I wish my wife's husband would also remember at all times the responsibility he has to direct the affairs of his family, to be the loving father and the companion for his daughters that he basically wants to be but sometimes forgets to be because of busy schedules.

Importance of Role of Father, Mother

I have been so impressed today with the thoughts and the feelings of our Prophet, Brother Lee, President Tanner, and others who have spoken to us concerning the home and its importance and the role of mother and father in this connection. As they talked to us about these basic issues which should concern all intelligent thinking Americans, I was reminded of one of the finer studies that was made some years ago by Dr. Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, a husband and wife sociology team at Harvard University. After much research and investigation of many cultures, they developed a scale which could predict delinquency, and they concluded that there were five basic ingredients that assured successful living and happy homes. Their discovery shouldn't surprise the Latter-day Saints because prophets of old, as well as today, have related these to us.

Successful Families Require Affection

Briefly stated, they suggested that if you want to have successful family relationships in your home, the mother must show affection for her children. How much has been said from this pulpit on many occasions concerning the role of the mother in the home, and I would be the first to wholeheartedly endorse all these words as to the influence of what that mother can be and the need for her to be constantly available to all young children. I think by nature the mother more normally tends to give this basic love because of her place in the home.

The second basic ingredient would be love shown by the father. And sometimes, dad, even though we have this basic interest and affection for our children, we fail to display it in a way that is meaningful in the lives of these young people. I am sorry to confess there have been times in my so-called busy life when I have neglected this very thing, thinking my dear wife would certainly fill in. I was brought up rather short some years ago by one of my daughters when one Sunday afternoon she took from my coat pocket my appointment book, opened it up, and wrote her name; and as she brought it to me she said, "Dad, I'm wondering if I can have an appointment with you at two o'clock next Sunday." I think you might appreciate in some small measure how I felt, and it was at that moment I began to take a serious inventory of my own life and my responsibilities.

The second daughter on that same occasion chimed in, and she said in almost an echo form, "Dad, why is it that you always have time for other people's children and not for us?" Well, I am happy to announce to this marvelous congregation and all who would hear that I have attempted to right my life as a father and as a teacher in the home, and I am finding as I found some years ago that what our prophets ask us to do is right. I bear fervent testimony of what this can do in any home in America today.

Supervision

The third thing in this formula was supervision, which the Gluecks basically assigned to the mother but certainly included the father.

And Discipline

And the fourth: discipline from the father, which does not exclude the mother as a part-time disciplinarian.

And Unity

Fifth: the point of cohesiveness, tying it all together, which depicts again the wisdom that has come from on high through living prophets concerning the Family Home Evening, the opportunity for mothers and fathers to sit down and work out programs that will assist the youth of our nation and of the world to better ways of life, to a higher and more divine understanding of our very purpose in the world.

I am so grateful as a father and as a husband for these things which have been revealed to us in these latter days.

A Father's Ten Commandments

May I just conclude by sharing with you from the pen of an unknown author "A Father's Ten Commandments"  Ex. 20:3-17 which I think have modern day application:

Thou shalt love thy children with all thy heart and hesitate not to manifest interest in and affection for them. This is the first and great commandment.

Second, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images of thy business, thy career, or thy sports, or any likeness of pleasure, occupation, or pursuit in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them so that thou forgettest to be a pal and a chum to thy children.

Third, thou shalt not take the name of "Dad" upon thee lightly, for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless who has little regard for the responsibility of fatherhood.

Fourth, remember thy children's portion of thy time and keep it holy. Many days shalt thou labor and do all manner of work that thou mayest provide suitably for all their needs, but in that portion of thy day which belongeth to them, thou shalt not do any work, neither shalt thou bury thy nose in a book, betake thyself to the golf links, or busy thyself otherwise according to thine own pleasure.

Fifth, honor thy wife, for thy children loveth her dearly and cannot admire, respect, and love thee if thou display not loving kindness for her.

Sixth, thou shalt counsel and advise with thy children in all things and share with them the secrets of thy heart.

Seventh, thou shalt be firm in thy discipline lest thy children stray from the paths of righteousness for the lack of thy guiding hand. But thou shalt not even hold the reins of thine authority too tight nor fail to understand that thy children desireth and needeth more and more of that independence of action which becometh a man.

Eighth, thou shalt have trust and confidence in thy children and be patient and long-suffering with all their shortcomings.

Ninth, thou shalt walk uprightly before men and make thy ways clean in the sight of thy God, for thy children doth follow after thy example. Moreover, take heed that thy children hath more discernment than thou sometimes thinkest and art more influenced by what they see thou really art than by what thou pretendest to be.

And tenth, thou shalt not forget thou wert once a boy. Neither shalt thou be unmindful that times have changed very much since the days of thy youth.

I am grateful, my brothers and sisters and friends, for knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for its meaning in our home, and for this divine program which has been established to influence lives everywhere. May we be equal to the tasks as dads and husbands, as priesthood bearers, to raise up a generation that will bless this nation and this world, I humbly pray as I testify to the divinity of these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.