And the Glory of Children are Their Fathers – Sunday, October 8, 1944
“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.” (Proverbs 17:6.) This, from Proverbs, suggests comment on a law of privilege and responsibility, established in the wisdom of God. Every man born of woman has the right to be taught wisely, to be nurtured and sustained, loved and cherished, and provided for until he, himself, is able to assume his own obligations and support. He then in turn has the obligation to rear children of his own, to make a good home for them, to nurture and counsel and instruct, until they shall grow in wisdom and arrive at the age and ability to do for themselves the needful things of life. But beyond what a man may rightfully expect to receive from his parents, and beyond what he may be privileged to give his children, he has also an obligation to the home in which he was born and nurtured and to those who have reared him.
The moment a man feels no obligation to his parents, or the moment a parent feels no obligation to his children, the moment there is no feeling of interdependence and responsibility to brothers and sisters in the home, the spirit of irresponsibility and selfishness has taken over. In some places in this world and generation of ours there has been a tendency to remove these obligations of home and family. May heaven protect us from the inroads of such false philosophy—and may we also do something to protect ourselves from it.
The family is the strongest unit of society because it is the unit of highest responsibility, and to break down this strength is ultimately to break down civilization itself, because if men are not made to feel their obligations to home and family, they cannot be made to feel their obligations to anyone or anything—and soon this selfishness and irresponsibility make their inroads upon communities and nations. The obligations of parents to children, the obligations of children to parents, and the obligations of brother to brother, are socially, economically, and spiritually sound, and morally irrevocable—and any society in which the family is not the measure of strength has fallen upon evil ways, and is marked for weakness and disintegration. And the hearts of the fathers shall be turned to their children, “and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” (See Malachi 4:6.)
Heard over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Oct. 8, 1944. Copyright – 1944.
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October 08, 1944
Broadcast Number 0,790