What is needed today is for fathers to commit to being fathers whatever it might take, said Elder Loren C. Dunn of the Seventy, speaking in the Sunday afternoon session.
"If all is not perfect in your home, then let it begin with you," he counseled.Elder Dunn said that while both father and mother are important, he chose to address his remarks toward the commitment of being a good father.
"The history of the gospel of Jesus Christ from Adam and Eve to the present time is closely associated with father and mother and family," he said. This includes from the first verse of the Book of Mormon in which Nephi speaks of "goodly parents" to the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith who, after receiving the vision of the Angel Moroni, was instructed to tell his father.
"The Savior of the world. . . said simply that He came to work out the plan of salvation and give His life for the sake of all mankind because His Father sent Him. The love between the Father and Son was so perfect that the Savior gave it as His first reason for coming into mortality and the suffering He did for us in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross."
Elder Dunn said the gospel is designed to "teach us what to do as fathers and mothers and it would seem that when families are intact, we may very well do good things and give as our first reason 'because my father sent me' or because a father showed the way."
He said there are innumerable young people who did not quit and go home during the first days of being away at school or away from home the first time because of the good influence of their fathers and mothers.
He recalled being called 32 years ago as a General Authority by President David O. McKay, who was personally acquainted with Elder Dunn's father, a longtime stake president. President McKay asked the new General Authority to carry out this calling in a way that would be pleasing to his father. "This was enough to be a challenge for a lifetime," said Elder Dunn.
"I looked on my father as one of the greatest men I knew. My first understanding of how important I was to my father and how real the Savior was, was when I heard him pray for us in family prayer.
"If the example has not been set in your life, then reach out and try to help establish it; and resolve that the example will begin with you, if there is no one else."
He quoted President Harold B. Lee who said that the turning of the hearts of the children to their fathers and the fathers to the children was not only a commission to do work for the dead, but it also applied to the living and the importance of keeping those family relationships intact in this life, said Elder Dunn.
"A father succeeds when he steps forward and accepts his commitment as a father, always loving, praying for and doing what he can for his family and never giving up.
"May the sacred name of Heavenly Father be spoken with reverence in our homes," he implored. "May the name of Father carry with it the kind of love and confidence that will bring peace and hope and righteous determination."