How can a father truly give top priority to his family and still magnify his callings in the Church?

George D. Durrant, Regional Representative, director of the Church Priesthood Genealogy Division, and father of eight. Once while serving as a mission president in Kentucky, I was faced with a direct conflict of family activity and Church activity. The Kentucky Derby was coming up, and our family had looked forward to going for weeks. Three days before the big event, the schedule for the Lexington Stake conference was shifted one week forward, and the Saturday leadership meeting now fell on Derby Day. As mission president, I was invited in a midweek phone call from the visiting authority to be at those sessions.

In the conversation, I advised the leader of my previous plan and asked him his opinion. He replied, “Sometimes we just have to choose.” And that is all he said.

What would you have done?

Church work often requires that fathers be away from home. But by setting proper priorities, planning, and delegating, a father can organize himself to be effective in church duties and to be home much more often than he would suppose.

Some fathers who spend undue amounts of time in church callings take pride in these long hours away from home as a mark of dedication. Often it is dedication, but in some cases it is just a way of not going home. Some fathers feel more capable in activities away from home than they do with their families. We should examine ourselves to see if, under the guise of “dedication,” we’ve left to our wives the most important of all causes to which we should be dedicated—our families.

Some feel that if they devote many hours away from family to their church duties, the Lord will compensate by ensuring that all will be well at home. But fathers faithful in the Church can and sometimes do have critical problems at home, and one reason may be a lack of father-family experience.

On the other hand, a father who feels successful at home comes out of that home filled with the spirit of love. His heart has been warmed by the home fires of his own family, and he is then able to warm the hearts and souls of his brothers and sisters. A man who devotes sufficient time and energy to family activities and who likewise is dedicated to the Lord and building his Church receives the Spirit of the Lord. It is that Spirit and not endless hours at away-from-home Church activities which brings success in church work.

In my opinion, some Church planning and leadership meetings are far too long. I was once asked by a Church leader, “Are you as a leader punctual in conducting meetings?”

I said, “Yes, I always start meetings on time.”

He said, “But are you punctual?”

I answered again the same way, “We start on time.”

He asked me the same question again, and as I sat looking perplexed he said, “I know that you begin your meetings on time, but do you end them on time?” He added, “End the meeting at the appointed time and let people go home to their families. Those who neglect the appointed quitting time are as much in error as those who neglect the beginning time.”

Sometimes a father will excuse himself for not being home enough by saying, “It isn’t the quantity but the quality of time spent that matters.” There is some truth in this statement for some people, but we must not use it to salve a conscience that tells us we are too much away from the family.

When I was called to be a mission president, I was fearful that at a most critical time in the lives of my eight children I might not have sufficient time to be a good father. I had determined that being a father was as important a call from the Lord as being a mission president. That meant that even though I would dedicate myself to the mission, I would have to double my dedication as a father.

With that in mind, one of my first orders of business was to tie a big rope to a high limb on the huge ash tree that towered over our front yard. With the swing came instant neighborhood friends for our younger children.

A few months after our arrival, we attended a mission presidents’ seminar. Each president was asked what he felt was the best idea he had put into practice so far in his mission. When my turn came, I said, “The best thing I’ve done so far is to build a swing.” Everyone laughed. I described the swing and explained that my major goal was to be a good father and that the swing was my symbol of this priority. The leader sustained my action.

I’ve found that I allow more time for my family if I remind myself that playing with the children is church work. While I was mission president, I would often go to a beautiful amusement park with my family. I would just walk around the park with a smile on my face, holding hands with my children, eating cotton candy.

Once in a while, the thought would enter my mind: “Hey, you’re the mission president. You’d better get back to the office.” But then I’d smile again and say to myself, “Well, I’m doing my church work here. I’m with my children and my wife. We’re having a fun day, and tonight I’ll be able to write in my journal that I did six hours of glorious church work today.” I’d eat a little more cotton candy and let the children lead me wherever they wanted to go.

Church work with your family doesn’t mean you leave other church work undone. It merely means that you do both—and you can do both. Somedays you can spend a whole day with the children. Other times it will have to be a ten-minute wrestle or one paper airplane constructed after the evening meal.

Some years ago I was serving as a bishop. At the same time I was working on a doctor’s degree at a university and holding a full-time job. I was under some strain, fearing that because of my desire to succeed in so many areas I was really failing as a father.

One Sunday evening I stayed late at church to complete some work. As I walked into the chapel to turn off the lights before going home, I suddenly felt lonely. I felt that my back would not bear for another day the heavy burdens I was carrying.

I fell to my knees near the pulpit and cried to the Lord. I poured out the feelings of my soul to him and described in detail my seemingly insurmountable tasks. When I finished I remained kneeling. And then I heard the Spirit speak to me in my heart. The answer it gave me was all I needed. It said just three things: Go forward. Do your best. Love your family.

I arose a new man.

Since then, whenever specific conflicts have come up between my family and church work, I’ve remembered those words and followed the advice given me years ago in Kentucky by a great Church leader—“Sometimes you just have to choose.”

Perhaps the only mistake we really make is when we choose one way over the other all of the time.