"President Ezra Taft Benson (1984, p. 6) reinforced this key principle of fathering in a conference address:
"God established that fathers are to preside in the home. Fathers are to provide love, teach and direct."
Abraham Heschel, a leading Jewish philosopher, identified the father as a powerful spiritual figure in the family circle with moral responsibility to teach and care for his children. He suggested that fathers are meant to be teachers and holy figures in the lives of their children. Before the patriarch Jacob died, he called his children to him and said, "Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father" (Genesis 49:2). He bestowed counsel and blessings upon each of his chilren. In him was the power to bless generations. He exercised a holy influence upon his children as he blessed them and uplifted them; this is part of what it truly means to preside."
Bibliography: Hawkins, Alan J, David C Dollahite, and Thomas Draper. Successful Marriages And Families. Provo, Utah: BYU Studies and School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, 2012. Print.
Chapter 13
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