FATHERS

For my sons!

Since today is Father’s Day, I would like to tell you a little bit about some special fathers in my life.

The first one is my father, Marvin Jesse Lewis.  He grew up in a small rural town in New Mexico with several brothers and sisters who all claimed that he teased them mercilessly growing up.  When he was a young man Pearl Harbor was bombed and he ended up being drafted into the Army.  After basic training he was sent over to England as an airplane mechanic.  While he was there he went to a dance one evening and a pretty young lady asked him to dance.  After they got out on the dance floor he decided he would tease her and told her it was against his religion to dance.  So she walked off the dance floor and left him standing there by himself, then she told all her friends to be sure not to dance with him because it was against his religion to dance.  Needless to say he didn’t get any dances that night.  The joke was on him this time.  However, this pretty young lady, who had turned his teasing around, intrigued him; and he set out to pursue her and eventually won her heart. 

Soon after they were married he was sent to Europe to fight.  From his experiences there he learned the importance of having the gospel in his life and even though it wasn’t always easy, it was always important to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to have faith and trust in Him and to be obedient to His commandants.

 

During World War II he learned the importance of being a kind and generous man.  His motto was “Be nice every chance you get” and we never left our home without hearing him share that with us.  Not only did he say it, but he lived it. He was greatly admired by others because he lived his life in this way and he had many, many friends who admired and respected him throughout his life. 

His favorite hymn was “Have I Done Any Good? Let me share the words with you because they go right along with his motto and help us to understand what it means to “Be nice every chance you get."

HAVE I DONE ANY GOOD?

Wil. L. Thompson 

Hymn #223 LDS Hymnal

Have I done any good in the world today?

Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad? 

If not, I have failed indeed. 

Has anyone’s burden been lighter today because I was willing to share?

Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?

When they needed my help was I there?

There are chances for work all around just now.

Opportunities right in our way.

Do not let them pass by,

“Saying sometime I’ll try.”

But go and do something today. 

Tis noble of man to work and to give.

Love’s labor has merit alone.

Only he who does something helps others to live.

To God each good work will be known.

Then wake up and do something more than dream of your mansion above

Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure, a blessing of duty and love.

The other important father in my life is my husband, your dad, Rex William Morris.  One of the things that inspires me most about him is that he has a great love for everyone.  He accepts everyone for who they are. He has empathy for them and is genuinely concerned for their welfare and wants to listen to and learn from them.  He makes friends easily and they become friends for life.

He grew up in a small town in South Dakota and had never really heard of Mormons or of the LDS Church.  He joined the Navy right out of high school and was off to see the world.  After boot camp he was sent to Rota, Spain.  While there he became friends with some Mormons but really didn’t want anything to do with their church.  However, through a series of events he eventually became interested in and joined the church.  There they had a small group of LDS service men that would get together on Monday nights and have family home evenings together.  They called themselves The Ammonites.  You can read about the Ammonites in the Book of Mormon.

In Alma 27:27 we read:  “And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the people of the church of God.  And they were also distinquished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ even unto the end.” And in verse 30 we read, “And thus they were a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord.”

Through the time they were able to spend together as young LDS men in the service and away from home, they were able to form a bond and strengthen and lift each other.  Through the experiences they had together they became close, lifelong, friends. Before they left Spain, Rex and a few others made plans to go on a mission when they got out of the Navy and then decided they would meet up at BYU after their missions. They followed through with their plans. One of them went on a mission to New Mexico and served in my home town and eventually introduced me to your dad, but that’s another story. 

I admire your dad because he does truly have a zeal towards God and men and is firm in his faith in Jesus Christ and is an example of his faith to others.  As you continue to know him you will come to find this out as well.  He joined the church over 40 years ago and to this day he is still friends with these young men in that Family Home Evening group that called themselves the Ammonites.  To this day they are still firm in their faith in Jesus Christ. In the past few months Rex has been in contact with most of them.   One of them was in the Mission Training Center with us in Provo, Utah, also going on a mission.  Three others are planning to serve missions soon or are getting ready to submit their papers for missions.  They continue to have that zeal towards God and men and are willing to serve unto the end.

I can’t forget to mention another father, Our Heavenly Father.  I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and to know that we are his children.  I’m grateful that Heavenly Father’s plan included families and know that having a family with a loving father and mother is the best place to teach, learn and apply gospel principles.  I am grateful that he restored the gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith and has given us prophets to lead and guide us in this dispensation.  He has given us the Book of Mormon that teaches us the fullness of the Gospel.  Most of all, I am grateful that he gave us the plan of salvation which teaches us that Jesus Christ our Savior is willing to atone for my sins and your sins so that through faith, repentance, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end, we can return and live with our Heavenly Father again.

My prayer is that through your struggles each day and throughout each week you will remember, in the words of my father, to "be nice every chance you get," and from the examples of your dad and the Ammonites that you will be distinquished for your zeal towards God and men, and that you will strive to be perfectly honest, upright and firm in your faith towards God even unto the end.