The famous J. Golden Kimball (09JUN1853 – 02SEP1938) was one of the most colorful and beloved Latter-day General Authorities. He was carefully trained by his father Heber C. Kimball, First Counselor in the First Presidency to the Prophet Brigham Young. J. Golden’s upbringing occurred as he was living in such close proximity to his father that he was ever under his very watchful care. J. Golden had the privilege in his early years of accompanying his father with President Brigham Young when visiting the various settlements of the Saints. While home and while travelling he learned the value and joy of serving others. At home on the family farm, at age fifteen taking care of his mother after his father’s death, as the oldest of eleven boys, at service opportunities with neighbors and friends, and with service projects at the Church or on Church-owned properties.
J. Golden was taught as a boy and then as young Aaronic Priesthood holder to serve. If chairs needed to be set up at the chapel before meetings, he was there. If chairs needed to be taken down after meetings, he was there. If a neighbor needed help with their livestock or clearing fields or harvesting or any other community service opportunity, he was there. Whether it was raising a barn or painting one, mending a fence or building one, he was there. If someone or something needed help, he was there. Whether by assignment, or due to personal concern, or by a selfless act of charity, it didn’t matter, he was there – he just showed up!
Because of his renowned reputation for speaking in a way that was less refined than the cultured style of other Church leaders, members often wondered how it was that J. Golden could ever be called to serve as one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventies. On occasion he responded to such an inquiry by saying he received the highly regarded calling because ‘he just showed up’. It had become a pattern for his life. Whenever there was an opportunity to serve somewhere he showed up. He credited his high and holy calling as a President to one of the First Quorums of the Seventy because ‘he showed up’.
He went on to further remark that in his estimation heaven would most likely be filled with the people that ‘just showed up’. People who had committed their lives to serving others and ‘just showing up’ and the characteristic would be as natural to them as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening.
Just as Heber C. Kimball served without constraint, he taught his sons to do the same. In their home and during ‘pre-FHE’ family meetings, we might have heard frequent references to King Mosiah’s wise counsel, “…when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17). How different our world would be if all men magnified a core quality to ‘just show up’ and serve wherever and whenever, without complaint or restraint.
As fathers and as priesthood holders we can create legacies of ‘showing up’ and of serving others like the Savior would want us to serve in our marriages, in our families, in our quorums, and to our fellow men. We can make it a core attribute of who we are. As we do, we will experience more of heaven on earth and become better candidates for exaltation. Through the grace and Atonement of Jesus Christ, we will become part of that celestial family of God, and together we’ll recognize a familiar theme in those that are there – they will be those who indeed had consistently practiced the principle of ‘just showing up’.
The Savior has spoken on the matter, “… men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness… he that doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 58:27, 59:23).
Happy Father’s Day brethren! We love you and are grateful that you are the kind of men who consistently show up! And that is exactly why you are ‘Big Hunks’!
Wm. Calvin Hughes
Father's Day - June 19, 2011
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