I Knew My Father Knew
“We can give our children education, lessons, athletics, the arts, and material possessions, but if we do not give them faith in Christ, we have given little….
Do your children know that you know? Do they see and feel your conviction?”
Kevin W. Pearson, “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ”
About the Song
“We have the best dad ever!”
I think I have never heard a sweeter sound than this unprompted, unsolicited and utterly sincere exclamation from my children. Lucky me. I hear it often. The lyrics to this song took shape as I put myself in my children’s place after hearing those wonderful words of praise.
Earthly fathers have a powerful influence on the way their children feel about their Heavenly Father, and I am thankful that my children’s father exemplifies the love their Heavenly Father has for them. Naturally, he’s the first to disclaim perfection, but perfection isn’t necessary–only a loving heart and a willingness to live those convictions that lead to becoming like Christ.
Yes, the thoughts in this song apply equally to mothers (“…we do not doubt, our mothers knew it…” Alma 56:48), and if you’d like to use it in honor of motherhood, you can just sing “mother” and change the pronouns. I chose to make this song about fathers, simply because, at our house…. “we have the best dad ever.”
Church Music Submission: Relief Society division–Award of Distinction 2011
(To use the SSAA version as a treble duet (SA), omit the Soprano II and Alto II parts)
Sheet Music Downloads
Spotify, Soundcloud (inc. free downloads)
Click the 
to download the free track for personal use.
Recording featuring vocals by James Loynes:
Accompaniment track:
YouTube
Spanish Translation with vocals by Loida Fajardo:
(Video provided to YouTube by outside parties may contain ads that may be skipped after a few seconds.)
Lyrics
I watched him with the eager eyes of childhood day by day
The way he lived said more to me than words could ever say
The simple truths he taught me
would endure my whole life through
And long before I knew them for myself
I knew my father knew
I borrowed his unfailing faith; I trusted in his love
I counted on his courage when my own was not enough
I turned to him for counsel through the perils of my youth
And even when I doubted, still I knew,
I knew my father knew
I saw his quiet witness in the tears he could not hide
As he taught me of the Savior, how He lived and how He died
I felt the Holy Spirit, as he testified of truth
As I began to understand the things I knew my father knew
I have found my father’s faith deep within my soul
A legacy I’ll treasure through eternities untold
And everything I try to be, and everything I do
I do because I learned to know and love the things
I knew my father knew
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Stunning lyrics! Great hymn. You are a master!
Thank you so very much for sharing your amazing talent with all of us. I’m my Stake and Ward choir director and I use so much of your music. But for Father’s Day I sang or at least tried to sing, I Knew My Father Knew. It’s hard to sing through tears, though. You nailed my dad. Thank you ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
This is such a perfect song; it reflects what I think about my own father. I love the chord progressions and the melody; it is such a powerful song about the influence of a father in our lives. How you can do this over and over is amazing to me. Thank you for sharing your gift with us. I love this song, it has a deep meaning to me; I love it so much we are performing it in church on Sunday, two days away. That’s what you do when the song impresses you, you feel a need to share it!! THANK YOU
Thanks, Sally. I’ve been looking to do a special number for Fathers Day; this fits tremendously well. I’ll be singing it this June18th, 2023. It’s sweet, warm and filled with love. Well done… 🙂
We had this song sung by a family member for my husband’s funeral. Nothing has expressed his strengths so much as this song expresses. His children are his testament to his strength as a father. Thank you for writing this song so beautifully and allowing us to use it as you do for everyone. It meant the world to me.
Dear Sally,
I am writing to let you know how much I love your music. I sing every Sunday since our church no longer has a choir. You have been such a great help to me and I just had to let you know how much I love your beautiful accompaniments.
Being able to print the notes and words so easily and without expense is very much appreciated. God has certainly blessed you and you are blessing others with your wonderful gift.
Sincerely,
Hello!
I am doing this song for father’s day and I have the Alto part. I was wondering if you had a version of the song only for the altos.
Thank you for this beautiful song!
-Emily
Thank you for the beautiful words and music to I Knew My Father Knew
I have been practicing this song as I will be singing solo for our church Fathers Family Dinner I am not a singer but with God’s help I can sing this beautiful song
Could you make a recording of this as a duet and as a quartet?
We would like a combine YM and YW choir for Father’s Day. Would the solo version be an arrangement the YM as well as the YW be able to sing? I am not that familiar with the range of voices for YM. Thank you for sharing your gift! Your music has blessed our ward many times!
It will be a little low in places for some of your YM, depending on their ages and what their mature voice range will be. You may want to divide lines out based on range rather than splitting things up by verses, or divide your group into low voices and high voices rather than dividing YW/YM.
Thank you for this beautiful inspired music! I have five wonderful children and my husband of 67 years has Alzheimers. I would love to have our sons sing this during his services. God bless you dear Lady!
Aloha Sally,
I have been the music leader in primary fro the past 5 years. In that time we’ve pretty much done all the music in the children’s song book for mother’s/ father’s day. It has been my desire to expose the children to new music. It has been a great experience as the children love the new music, and have done it so well. For Easter we sang “I know that My Savior Loves me.” It was the same song the young women had chosen to sing in May, but when they found out we were singing it already in April, they asked to join in on our Easter song for Sacrement. We made it more challenging and interesting by mashing 2 songs together. The primary sang the first song, I know that my Savior loves Me. Then the Young Women sang “In Humility Our Savior” then we mashed the 2 together. It came out so nice. So I thought you would like to know that for Mother’s day we are singing”An Angel to Watch Over Me.” and for Father’s day we wil be singing “I knew my Father Knew.” The children love it, and the audience looks forward to hearing them each time we sing. Thank you for the awesome new selection of music for us to chose from. It has really made the children eager to learn new music. My primary is very small, we have a total of maybe 8 senior, and 12 junior primary kids. It is a challenge for the younger ones for sure.
Mahalo!
Mona from Honolulu Hawaii