“Dad, do you know how to take care of us?”
When I was a young father, I decided to take my three oldest sons on a camping and fishing trip. They were young boys at the time, ranging in age from about five to ten years old. It was early in the spring, and my sources told me that the fishing was excellent at a particular lake about an hour from our home. With great anticipation from my young sons, we set out on our trip, loaded with our fishing and camping gear.
We arrived in the early evening and decided to get an early start on fishing. Rather than set up our camp first, we went straight to the fun stuff … fishing. Sure enough, the fishing was excellent. We caught and caught and caught. We hardly noticed the time slipping by until darkness was upon us.
As the sun went down and darkness set in, the weather started to turn unseasonably cold. A cold front was coming in. In the dark, I hurried to make a tasty campfire dinner. It was getting colder. We had not brought clothing that was warm enough for this cold front. My boys were shivering. After setting up our tent in the darkness and rolling out the sleeping bags, we hurriedly jumped in to warm ourselves. My seven-year-old’s feet were very cold, and I worked to get them warm by holding them against my body and lightly rubbing them. At that moment, he asked me a question that I will never forget. He looked imploringly at me and said, “Dad, do you know how to take care of us?” I smiled inside, but he was very serious. He wanted assurance that he would be okay.
Like my son, we all want assurance that we will be okay. We want to know that our Father lives and knows how to take care of us. I testify that He does. This does not mean that bad things won’t happen to us. They will. We live in an imperfect existence. This world was simply not designed to be a perfect existence. That would defeat its purpose.
But in this imperfect world, God has given us the plan to return safely back to Him. First, He teaches us and gives us guidelines and commandments. I like to think of the commandments as “instructions for happiness and peace.” Then He invites us to follow Him and to make commitments and covenants to do so. He then promises us blessings, both in this life and throughout eternity through the grace and atonement of our Savior.
I love the scripture in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
I testify that our Father knows how to take care of us and that by following His plan we find joy in this life and unimaginable blessings in the worlds to come.
Akron Ohio Stake News 