The Image of God

I'm not sure what brought on this thought, but I wondered the other day if perhaps our idea of what our Heavenly Father is like comes largely from what our earthly fathers are like.

People seem to have varied ideas about what God is like. I think they feel differently about His motives and His level of involvement in our lives.

Yesterday night I sort of completed the thought when it occurred to me that the father in the home is supposed to provide the best example to his children of what God is like.

(I then suppose that our mothers initially give us our ideas of what our Heavenly Mother is like, though of course we don't speak of her often.)

The father is the patriarch in his home. He is the priesthood leader in the family, and the priesthood is the power and authority to act in God's name. Just as the bishop is God's representative to all members of the ward, the father is God's representative to his family.

So when the world lacks an understanding of what God is like (and this is something I've seen many times over many years), I can only ascribe blame for that to fathers who failed to live as they should and to provide a good example to their children.

How many people feel as if God is not involved in their lives, that He doesn't care about them, or even that He does not exist? How many people have grown up in homes where the father was absent, or where he gave his attention to other things and rarely spent time with his kids?

Satan has been subtly undermining the roles of men (and women) for decades. How many in the world have lost faith in our Heavenly Father in recent years? Satan has also been discouraging people from having children, and thus denying themselves the most important opportunity to be examples of godliness and thus learn about Him that way. (After all, being a father has been the most instructive experience for me in learning about God.)

Naturally, though, the place in which I must really concern myself is in my own home, with my own children (and wife). That is where I can serve best, where the power of my example is the greatest.

Last thoughts for now:
I'm sure there are various other factors that shape a person's idea of God, particularly since my own father was often not present during my younger years. However, I believe that I have a responsibility in my own home to be a righteous man in whom my family can see godly attributes. The task of teaching my family, by example, the nature of God, is mine.