A father, a member of a stake presidency, was called out of an important meeting. On the other end of the phone was his 11-year-old daughter.
"Dad," his daughter asked, "what's the capital of Oklahoma?""Oklahoma City," came the patient reply.
"Oh, yeah. Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome - and good luck on your assignment."
As long as his daughter feels free to ask, the father said, he feels successful. A marvelous thing, fatherhood.
Certainly it is a man's most noble call. It carries the potential for a man's greatest eternal influence. The reasons that wonderful fathers are wonderful are myriad. But children of wonderful fathers know that dad genuinely cared.
Consider these examples:
"My father didn't like to camp. He spent too many nights in a sleeping bag while he was in the Marines. So we didn't go camping.
"But we did a lot of other things.
"Dad worked on the sidelines - right down with the teams - during University of Utah home football games. Sometimes, he'd let me visit him. How many 10-year-olds get to watch their favorite team from sidelines?"
"Our summer vacations to California and elsewhere have left me with some of my choicest childhood memories.
"Sometimes the excitement of preparing approached that of the actual going.
"I remember one Saturday, about a week before we were to leave. Dad and I were preparing the car.
"I told Dad how excited I was and, added wistfully, `I wish we were leaving tomorrow.' " `Yeah, I'm excited, too,' my Dad replied. `But the vacation will come soon enough. Be careful not to wish your life away.'
"That was some 25-30 years ago. He's right. Time certainly goes too fast for that."
"My father's service in the Church has long been a great example to me. For more than 25 years - as a ward clerk, stake clerk, bishop, high councilor, stake president and mission president - he served with dedication and commitment.
"Sometimes, it's difficult for a teenager to have his father be the bishop.
"But I liked it. Dad's love was genuine. His concern for me was based on that love - not on the need to have his children be perfect because they were the `bishop's kids.'
"And, despite the pull of work and Church, he always had time for me. Even as a teen, I loved being with my dad. "I often think of my dad when I come home from work, tired and knowing I've got several things to do before leaving for Church meetings. When the kids want to jump on the trampoline or shoot hoops in the driveway, I know what to do."
"My dad always kept our yard, especially the lawns, looking very nice. But when he installed a basketball standard on a small strip of concrete - surrounded by the grass - in the backyard, the lawn was doomed.
"Even the toughest lawn doesn't hold up well under the constant pounding of a basketball and dragging of feet during endless intense basketball contests.
"My dad wondered for a while what to do about that patch of dust that had once been the lawn. But, a fine example of willingly accepting the excellent advice of one's spouse, he quickly realized my mother's wisdom: `It'll grow back,' Mother told him.
"The basketball has long since stopped. The lawn now looks fine. All I remember is the message sent by my father (and my mother): We were more important than the lawn."
Perhaps, then, fatherhood is largely a matter of time - and the genuine love and concern shown by giving of that time. If children know their fathers always have the time for them, little else matters.