When I was twelve my parents moved us to an old farm
house. It was basically solid, but it
was old. The house had not been occupied
for a decade or more, other than by varieties of wildlife. It needed a lot of work. My father moved in about a month before us to
begin the restoration, bringing it close to livable when we all moved in. Still, it was a bit like camping out inside
the house for the first several weeks.
Being a fixer-upper brought the house within my parents’ price
range, though the $90 a month mortgage was still a strain. My father did nearly all the restoration work
himself.
The roofers, called in to repair numerous leaks, were
particularly interested in the slate shingles.
Once they had taken those off, we never saw them again—roofers or
shingles. Our wonderful neighbors helped
us with an emergency roof replacement when the hired roofers left us high but
far from dry in the midst of a thunderstorm.
My father, who had been a public works inspector where we
lived before, knew a great deal about ceilings, walls, carpentry, electrical
wiring, plumbing, and other very practical things. He tried to pass some of that knowledge on to
me.
I remember helping my father replace pipes. He did not need the help. I am quite sure that I slowed him down. He had me participate in the work so that I
could learn something about plumbing, and maybe even something about working. I remember many details about plumbing,
carpentry, and electricity that my father taught me. I learned what was between walls. He taught me many of the little details that
you need to observe to make something work right and last long.
My father did not teach me everything he knows about keeping a
house in good repair, but he taught me everything that I know. He did it by showing me. He taught me about tools by putting them in
my hands. I experienced what the right
tools did and how using them properly made the work easier, made impossible
work suddenly doable.
My father often explained the principles behind what we
did. When he helped me move into my new
house he noticed that we had a two-car garage, but only one car. He told me that was a problem. Why? I asked.
“Because you will fill one side up with stuff.” He was right.
When we could finally afford a second car, we had a lot of work to do to
clear the garage to make room for it.
Our Heavenly Father gave us earthly fathers to teach us much
about Him. As do the fathers of our
flesh, the Father of our spirits allows us to learn by helping Him with His
work. He revealed that His work is “to
bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39) The Father often does this important work by getting
us to help Him. He calls upon us to help
our brothers and sisters, His children.
The Lord does not need our help. “I am able to do mine own work” (2 Nephi 27:21), He said. Our Father often does that work by giving us the tools to help one another, teaching us how to use the tools, and then working with us. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to show us how by example (and to fix our mistakes). By doing that helping work we become more Christlike. We learn to love each other as the Father and His Son love us. We learn to become like Them. We also learn to teach and love our children, as the Father loves us.
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