The Davis family saga continues in Love's Enduring Promise, the sequel to Love Comes Softly. 

Missie Davis (now played by January Jones) is the local school teacher. She finds herself wooed by a wealthy surveyor, Grant Thomas, (portrayed by Mackenzie Astin), but when her father Clark (Dale Midkiff) suffers a life-threatening accident, the help of a mysterious stranger has her second guessing her true feelings. 

Airing on Hallmark Channel in 2004, Love's Enduring Promise shifts the story arc to Missie's character, which viewers will see continued in the next two films. Having viewed all of these movies up through Love Takes Wing, I feel this is the weakest film of the series. Perhaps that is to be expected after the moving performances of Katherine Heigl and Dale Midkiff as two people drawn together by necessity whose arrangement blossoms into love. These actors had such chemistry together that the focus shifting away from them means the actors portraying the love story in the sequel had to have equal or better chemistry, which wasn't visible to me. 

By now, Missie's family includes Marty's son Aaron Luke Davis (K'Sun Ray) and her brother Arnie Davis (Logan Arens). As she developed into a young woman, some of that spunk viewers enjoyed in Love Comes Softly has been tempered, which is to be expected. We do however see a bit of it when Nate (Logan Bartholomew) is plowing the field as Clark recovers. 

Missie is quickly taken with Grant Thomas, a wealthy surveyor who pursues her. Yet, she can't seem to get the mysterious Nate out of her mind. Nate comes with his own backstory, which unfolds along the way, and Clark is a compassionate father figure to Nate. 

My favorite parts of this movie are, no surprise, ones that involve Marty and Clark. In the opening sequence, we see Marty and Clark relaxing in a field together. Marty asks Clark to promise that he will never leave her, which he does. She asks him how he can be certain, and he quotes Scripture stating the two shall become one. She also comments on what a wonderful life he has given her and what a wonderful life they have made together, so the viewers feel they have been successful in their endeavors and enjoy their life together. This foreshadows his life-threatening accident. 

My next favorite part comes at the end of the movie. 

Clark's strong faith is a part of who he is. Viewers see that in Love Comes Softly, and they see it in Loves' Enduring Promise. That faith has helped him and his family through the years, and will be something they will lean on in the future. 

Michael Landon Jr. definitely inherited his father's ability to provide family friendly content that tugs at every heartstring. He has a knack for taking source material and adapting it to a new medium. I look forward to sharing more of this series with you.