Father Profiles: Meet my friend Adam!

Adam, a Scouting Leader
at a Court of Honor

Adam is a father of five children, including three teenagers and two younger children. He was recently released as a counselor in the YM Presidency where he blessed the lives of many wonderful young men, including my two oldest sons. He has also served in many other capacities including serving as a Bishop. Professionally, he has spent his career as a special agent for one of the federal government agencies. He and his wife Laura live with their five children in southeast Michigan.

MF: What do you enjoy most about being a father? Why?

Adam: Seeing my children grow and make righteous choices. We speak of living joyfully and think sometimes, as the world tries to entice us to believe, that such living is found in acquiring possessions, or climbing the career ladder, but to me, real joy comes in seeing what it is my children choose to do and be. Don’t get me wrong. I get satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from those other things, but my joy is found in being a father. My children are not perfect and they sometimes even have bad attitudes toward good things, but they are good children, ones that I am proud to call mine.

MF: How have you felt the Lord's influence in your father role? How has He helped you or magnified your efforts as a dad?

Adam: Because I love them, I worry about them and pray for and about them. In doing so, I have been blessed with inspiration about them and in my stewardship toward them. I have been reminded over and over again that parenting is a partnership between heaven and earth. When I speak of inspiration, I speak of the simple, “Have a lesson on topic X tonight,” or, “Go now and apologize, and tell him/her that you love him/her,” to the more complex, “Principle Y as taught and experienced by these fathers mentioned in the scriptures will help you here.” Beyond the inspiration, I’ve found great help reading about God’s dealing with his children.

MF: What's your family home evening routine?

Adam: I love Family Home Evening and have some wonderful memories of lessons and nights with my family.  We generally gather, sing, pray, talk about upcoming events, have a lesson, sing again, read scriptures, and then close with prayer. Our gatherings are fairly relaxed which, for my children, is helpful in getting them to focus for a while.

MF: How do you help protect your family from the evil influences of the world? What do you do?

Adam: Teach them truth. There is no other way. This is a truth that I learned best through a remarkable experience with one of my children. As I worried and wondered and prayed, there came the profoundly simple answer, “Teach him/her the truth and leave the rest to him/her.”