It Is a Gift to Rejoice in our Labors

It is a gift to rejoice in our labors
As a bread winner in the home
About, one gaining superior favors
Soon to his family is unknown

For he put his career at the top
Of all his priorities
And when the dime called, he would hop
In a rut where he was found most at ease
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In the other extreme of neglect
In dictatorship a father did lead
Unto brutality unchecked
As the words "gentle persuasion" he did not heed

Satan can distort our role
Knowing our desire to lead and act
Till we're selfishly conquering a soul
As unrighteous dominion becomes a fact
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But, I've said too much of "he"
For as feminist teachings do grow
A woman sought to preempt a leadership to "she"
As she though priesthood through her should flow

In this extreme manifestation
The mothering in the home was the cost
For from the very gestation
With abandonment her family was tossed

Dallin H. Oaks
Our Strengths Can Become our Downfall-
Neglect or Distortion of Family Duties
Ensign, October 1994, 11