Playing Football for Dad

I close with this last true story, as it was given by Bob Richards in his book Life's Higher Goals. It always touches my heart and it may touch yours. Lou Little tells this story about his greatest football team. They were on their way to the conference championship--one last game. He had a boy on his squad who had not quite been able to make the team for four straight years. Just before the game--three days before--Lou was given a telegram to give to this boy that informed him his only living relative had just died. The boy looked at the telegram and said, "Coach, I'll be back for Saturday's game." The morning of the game he came up to his coach and said, "Lou, I want you to put me in this game. I know I haven't made the first team yet, but let me in for this kickoff. I'll prove to you that I'm worthy of it." Well, Lou could see that the boy was emotionally upset, and he made all kinds of excuses, but finally he thought, "Well, he can't do much harm on the kickoff, so I'll put the boy in."

The roar of the crowd followed the kickoff. The opposing quarterback took the ball on the goal line, moved up, and on the seven-yard line there was a tremendous tackle. The boy had dropped him in his tracks. On the next play Lou left him in. He made the next tackle; he was in on the next tackle; you couldn't move him out of there. He made practically every tackle that day--terrific downfield blocking. He was the reason why Columbia won the championship. Afterwards, all the guys were pounding him on the back. When they were all done, Lou Little went up to the boy and said, "Son, I don't understand it. Today you were an all-American. I've never seen you play like this in four straight years. What happened?"

And the boy looked up at his coach and said, "Coach, you knew my dad died, didn't you?"

"Yes, I handed you the telegram."

He said, "You knew he was blind, didn't you?"

"Yes, I've seen you walk him around the campus many times."

He said, "Coach, today is the first football game my dad ever saw me play." It makes a difference, friends, when those unseen eyes are watching.

Ezra Taft Benson "Jesus Christ-Gifts and Expectations" BYU Devotional December 10 1974

Pondering

A few weeks ago President McKay related to the Twelve an interesting experience and I asked him yesterday if I might repeat it to you this morning. With his permission I am going to repeat it to you. He says "It is a great thing to be responsive to the whisperings of the Spirit and we know that when these whisperings come it is a gift and our privilege to have them. They come when we are relaxed and not under pressure of appointments." I want you to mark that.

The President then took occasion to relate an experience in the life of Bishop John Wells, formerly a member of the Presiding Bishopric. A son of Bishop Wells was killed in Emigration Canyon on a railroad track. Brother John Wells was a great detail man and prepared many of the reports we are following up today. His boy was run over by a freight train. Sister Wells was inconsolable. She mourned during the three days prior to the funeral, received no comfort at the funeral, and was in a rather serious state of mind. One day soon after the funeral services, while she was lying on her bed relaxed, still mourning, she says that her son appeared to her and said, “Mother, do not mourn. Do not cry. I am all right.” He told her that she did not understand how the accident happened. He explained that he had given a signal to the engineer to move on and then made the usual effort to catch the railings on the freight train, but as he attempted to do so his foot caught on a root and he failed to catch the hand rail and his body fell under the train. It was clearly an accident. He said that as soon as he realized that he was in another environment he tried to see his father but he could not reach his father. His father was so busy with the duties in the office that he could not respond to his call; therefore, he had come to his mother instead and he said to her, “You tell Father that all is well with me. I want you to not mourn anymore.”

Then the President made this statement. The president said that the point he had in mind was that when we are relaxed in a private room we are more susceptible to those things, that so far as he was concerned his best thoughts come after he gets up in the morning and is relaxed and thinking about the duties of the day, that impressions come more clearly as if he were to hear a voice and those impressions are right. If we are worried about something and upset in our feelings the inspiration does not come. If we so live that our minds are free from worry and our conscience clear and our feelings are right toward one another, the operation of the spirit, of the Lord upon our spirit is as real as when we pick up the telephone; but when they come, we must be brave enough to take the suggested action. The Lord will approve it and the brethren will approve it and we know it is right. He said "It is a great consolation in this upset world today to know that our Savior is directing this work." Then the President said "I value that testimony." Well if you forget all else I have said, you remember that lesson and that admonition.

Harold B. Lee, “Prayer,” Address to Seminary and Institute Faculty, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, July 6, 1956, p. 19.

He Was My Son Before He Was Yours

"Hasn't the Lord a right to call us home? Aren't we first of all His sons and daughters? I remember a father being unwilling to reconcile himself to the death of his only son. One day in the mountains he said to me that he had sought the Lord saying, "Why have you taken my boy, my son, my hope, my pride from me?"And there came to him the whisperings of the Spirit: "He was my son before he was yours. I loved him more than you will ever know how to love him, but if you are faithful I will give him back to you." And that father was reconciled. He was reconciled that God has a prior claim. When God calls us it is our business to say, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord." That is all we can do, and if we will desire it we will overcome and rise triumphant and victorious over all our sorrows. If we can only submit ourselves to that providence we will have peace in our hearts"

Bryant S. Hinckley, Sermons and Missionary Service of Melvin J. Ballard (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book CO., 1949) p 274.