It takes you

As a child I never thought much about what fatherhood entailed, I just knew that my dad worked all day away from home and then, in the summers, he came home and worked outside all night long in the garden. It's not until I grew up and started understanding what "bills" meant and the many hours he put in to pay them and worked in the garden to feed us that I saw the long loving hours he put in for us.

There's not a day that goes by without my dad asking how all the kids are doing, what we're up to, how goes school, what about food storage, are we getting enough sleep, and have we changed the oil in our car recently. I still remember and cherish that one youth conference when my dad, as bishopbric member, was a chaperone at the youth dance and when he saw that none of the boys asked me to dance he asked me. I've danced with many young men since, but that dance means the most to me.

The responsibilities of fatherhood are so overwhelming; to temporally provide for your family, to spiritually lead in your home and make sure that no matter what comes your children know your home is a safe harbour. I'm so thankful that my father has willingly and faithfully fulfilled those roles in my life, for always striving to do his duty, he has shown me that making your word as good as your bond is a very powerful thing. Thank you Dad for all you do and thank you to all the Dads out there who strive to faithfully do their duty and show us the care our Heavenly Father wants us to know.

For those who don't have a father in the home, thank you to the men in our lives who bare the priesthood and show Christlike love and service. Fathers really are the unsung heroes for their many sleepless nights and many desires to see their families succeed.

I often wonder if the fathers of the world feel like this, yet they keep going.

For those who are still reading Elder Perry had some wonderful things to say about families and things as they really are, I know I felt encouraged.

"No one has ever come up with a more efficient way to raise the next generation than a household of married parents with children.

Public opinion polls show that marriage is still the ideal and the hope among the majority of every age group—even among the millennial generation, where we hear so much about chosen singleness, personal freedom, and cohabitation instead of marriage. The fact is that strong majorities worldwide still want to have children and to create strong families.

Once we are married and once we have children, the true commonality among all mankind becomes even more evident. As “family people”—no matter where we live or what our religious beliefs may be—we share many of the same struggles, the same adjustments, and the same hopes, worries, and dreams for our children.

As New York Times columnist David Brooks said: “People are not better off when they are given maximum personal freedom to do what they want. They’re better off when they are enshrouded in commitments that transcend personal choice—commitments to family, God, craft and country.”⁴

One problem is that much of the media and entertainment that the world shares does not reflect the priorities and values of the majority. For whatever reasons, too much of our television, movies, music, and Internet present a classic case of a minority masquerading as a majority. Immorality and amorality, ranging from graphic violence to recreational sex, is portrayed as the norm and can cause those who have mainstream values to feel like we are out of date or from a bygone era. In such a media and Internet-dominated world, it has never been harder to raise responsible children and to keep marriages and families together.

Despite what much of media and entertainment outlets may suggest, however, and despite the very real decline in the marriage and family orientation of some, the solid majority of mankind still believes that marriage should be between one man and one woman. They believe in fidelity within marriage, and they believe in the marriage vows of “in sickness and in health” and “till death do us part.”

We need to remind ourselves once in a while, as I was reminded in Rome, of the wonderfully reassuring and comforting fact that marriage and family are still the aspiration and ideal of most people and that we are not alone in those beliefs."