Fathers and Sons: A Remarkable Relationship, by Elder M. Russell Ballard
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
I love to spend time with my family, and it's often hard to leave them for various meetings and appointments. Nevertheless, my children have discovered that if a meeting isn't too late, I'll let one of them come with me and we enjoy great one-on-one time together.
In fact, every general conference, David, my six-year-old, comes to the Priesthood Session with me. He wears his little suit and tie, and sits right next to me the whole time. Many of the other men make comments such as, "training him early, are you?", but they don't know the half of it—he wants to come!
So, there we were, sitting side-by-side when Elder Ballard started the session off talking about the relationship between fathers and sons. Right away I knew that I would love the talk, primarily because I was practicing what it preached!
I listened intently to the many points that were mentioned, not knowing how much attention David was paying to the words. On Elder Ballard's list of three suggestions for the sons, he started with:
First, trust your father. He is not perfect, but he loves you and would never do anything he didn’t think was in your best interest.
Upon hearing this, David turned to me and lovingly said, "Daddy, you're perfect."
This gave me both a big smile and confidence that we were well on our way to having a life-long remarkable relationship:
There is no other relationship quite like that which can and should exist between a boy and his dad. It can be one of the most nurturing, joyful relationships in life, one that can have a profound impact on who boys become and also on who dads become.
I love our Daddy-David time, and look forward to additional father-son time in the future with my other son(s) as well. [I love my daddy-daughter time, too!]
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