Elder Richard L. Evans on the role of our loving Father

Elder Richard L. Evans (1906-1971) served as a Seventy from 1938-1953, when he was called to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.  He died in 1971 at age 65.  He was known as "the voice of the Tabernacle Choir" from the beginning of its broadcasts in 1929 until his passing.

"Our Father in heaven is not an umpire who is trying to count us out. He is not a competitor who is trying to outsmart us. He is not a prosecutor who is trying to convict us. He is a Loving Father who wants our happiness and eternal progress and everlasting opportunity and glorious accomplishment, and who will help us all he can if we will but give him, in our lives, the opportunity to do so with obedience and humility and faith and patience.

"God help us to live to have his help, that these things which he has in store for his children, all of whom we are, may be ours."

- Richard L. Evans, General Conference, October 1956; CR pp. 99-101

This is a classic testimony from Elder Evans, given near the conclusion of one of his talks. I love the analogies he provides, first about what Heavenly Father is NOT — a judge, adversary, competitor. We might sometimes view him in that kind of role. But the real power of the quote comes in the description of what our Father truly IS — "He is a Loving Father who wants our happiness and eternal progress and everlasting opportunity and glorious accomplishment." What a beautiful contrast to the worldly view of God!

And then the sweet conditional: God "will help us all he can if we will but give him, in our lives, the opportunity to do so with obedience and humility and faith and patience." In other words, WE have to set the stage through our actions and attitudes; then God, as an eternal, perfectly-loving Father, will step in to bless, sustain, and protect.

(Compilation and commentary by David Kenison, Orem, Utah, 2021)
March 23, 2015