Reports bring news of drought-induced famine in many parts of the world. Out of places such as Africa, the media show pictures of children clinging to life and adults helpless to stave off starvation. Photographs show that once-fertile fields and pasture lands look like bleak moonscapes where nothing grows as winds spirit away precious topsoil. Americans of an earlier generation remember how drought turned much of its heartland into a dust bowl.

There's a short span between feast and famine. When a dry spell lingers, farmers look for clouds that promise rain. In stores, on streets, around supper tables and in church doorways, people in farming country talk about rain, or the lack of it. Those of faith pray for rain.

Concern rises as lakes and rivers empty. After just a short time, city dwellers join farmers in scanning skies. Some might wonder if, as in Elijah's day, the heavens have been sealed against moisture. (See 1 Kings 17:1.)

As devastating as a long spell without rain is to geographical locales, spiritual droughts are more perilous to souls. Reservoirs to sustain us spiritually are as essential as sources of water are to crops.

In times of insufficient rains, farmers irrigate crops from available sources, calculating how much water is needed and where to direct it. Likewise, parents nurture their children. In a never-ending cycle, one generation helps or hinders children of the next. As one generation digs wells, the next quenches its thirst. Parents well-nourished spiritually themselves more ably nurture their children.

In warm-weather months, vehicles towing boats or laden with fishing, camping or picnic supplies fill roadways as families head to recreation spots by rivers, lakes or reservoirs. More than a familial bonding activity, recreation is a welcome escape from everyday life, a change of pace, an opportunity to focus on something other than work or that which is commonplace. While providing for fun activities, wise parents provide also for spiritual regeneration. Empty reservoirs serve no one, physically or spiritually.

"Is it not the work of the parents to build so their children can inhabit houses they did not build; eat the fruit from trees they did not plant and grapes from vines they did not start? Parents should be soberly about their life's work of building reservoirs and helping to fill them for the children who are yet too small to hoe, or dig, or plow," said Elder Spencer W. Kimball, then of the Quorum of the Twelve, at the October 1969 general conference.

"I am grateful to my parents, for they made reservoirs for my brothers, my sisters and myself. They filled them with prayer habits, study, activities, positive services, and truth and righteousness. Every morning and every night, we knelt . . . and prayed, taking turns. When I was married, the habit persisted, and our new family continued the practice."

In 1831, when the Church was in its infancy, the Lord gave counsel that still stands: "And they shall teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord" (Doctrine and Covenants 68:28).

Parents who complain that schools don't do better jobs teaching values such as responsibility, honesty, kindness and other moral traits fail to understand the roles of educational institutions and homes. While schools might do a better job teaching subjects such as math, the home is the best place to teach important lessons of life — virtue, character, integrity and kindness, to name a few.

And while the Church and its organizations and programs assist parents in teaching their children, parents should lead in filling the reservoirs with spiritual knowledge, personal testimony, gospel truths and moral strength. As farmers prepare the soil, plant seeds and nurture their crops, so must parents create an environment in which their offspring can grow. Tender spirits seldom thrive in homes beset by spiritual drought.