Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
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"Among the principal social issues of our time is the flight of fathers from their children's lives."
A recent book attributed many of society's problems — including poverty, crime and adolescent pregnancy — to the absence of fathers in the home.
"Of even greater concern than the physical absenteeism of some fathers is the spiritually or emotionally absent father. These are fatherly sins of omission that are probably more destructive than sins of commission."
Fathers need not be perfect. But they can keep moving in the right direction by striving to emulate with their children the relationship between God and his Son, Jesus Christ.
"Dads, is it too bold to hope that our children might have some small portion of the feeling for us that the divine Son felt for his Father? Might we earn more of that love by trying to be more of what God was to his child? In any case, we do know that a young person's developing concept of God centers on characteristics observed in that child's earthly parents."
