Truth and Tolerance When Seeking Government Action

This is a vital matter on which we who believe in a
Supreme Being who has established absolute right
and wrong in human behavior must unite to insist on
our time-honored constitutional rights to exercise our
religion, to vote our consciences on public issues, and to
participate in elections and debates in the public square
and in the halls of justice. In doing so we stand with
angels. We must also stand shoulder to shoulder with
other believers to preserve and strengthen the freedom
to advocate and practice our religious beliefs, whatever
they are. For this purpose we must walk together on
the same path in order to secure our freedom to pursue
our separate ways when that is necessary according to
our separate beliefs. Guided by heaven in this righteous
cause, our words will be sweet and find place in the
hearts of many.

Second, when believers seek to promote their positions
in the public square, their methods and their advocacy
should always be tolerant of the opinions and positions
of others who do not share their beliefs. We should
not add to the extremism that divides our society.

Third, believers should not be deterred by the familiar
charge that they are trying to legislate morality. Many
areas of the law are based on Judeo-Christian morality
and have been for centuries. Our civilization is based
on morality and cannot exist without it. As John Adams
declared: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral
and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other.”

Fourth, believers should not shrink from seeking laws
to maintain public conditions or policies that assist
them in practicing the requirements of their faith
where those conditions or policies are also favorable to
the public health, safety, or morals. For example, even
though religious beliefs are behind many criminal laws,
and some family laws, such laws have a long-standing
history of appropriateness in democratic societies. But
where believers are in the majority, they should always
be sensitive to the views of the minority.

Finally, the spirit of our balance of truth and tolerance
is applied in these words of President Gordon B.
Hinckley: “Let us reach out to those in our community
who are not of our faith. Let us be good neighbors,
kind and generous and gracious. Let us be involved
in good community causes. There may be situations,
there will be situations, where, with serious moral issues
involved, we cannot bend on matters of principle. But
in such instances we can politely disagree without being
disagreeable. We can acknowledge the sincerity of those
whose positions we cannot accept. We can speak of
principles rather than personalities.”

Elder Dalin H. Oaks

Facing Profanity, Cohabitation, and Sabbath Breaking with Truth and Tolerance

“In Mosiah 18:9 Alma tells us that when we are baptized
we covenant ‘to stand as “witnesses” of God at all times
and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in.’ …
What does this scripture mean for our day and how can
it be applied by Latter-day Saints?

“Living in the mission field, I often hear the name of the
Lord taken in vain, and I also have acquaintances who
tell me that they are living with their boyfriends. I have
found that observance of the Sabbath is almost obsolete.
How can I keep my covenant to stand as a witness and
not offend these people?”13

 Profanity, cohabitation, and Sabbath breaking—excellent
examples to illustrate how Latter-day Saints might
balance their competing duties to truth and tolerance in
their own lives in these difficult circumstances.

I begin with our personal conduct, including the
teaching of our children. In applying the sometimes
competing demands of truth and tolerance in these
three behaviors and many others, we should not be
tolerant with ourselves. We should be ruled by the
demands of truth. We should be strong in keeping the
commandments and our covenants, and we should
repent and improve when we fall short.

 As President Thomas S. Monson taught us in the
conference where he was sustained as our prophet: “My
young friends, be strong. … The face of sin today often
wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind
that façade is heartache, unhappiness, and pain. You
know what is right and what is wrong, and no disguise,
however appealing, can change that. The character of
transgression remains the same. If your so-called friends
urge you to do anything you know to be wrong, you
be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand
alone.”

Profanity consistently used in our presence is an
appropriate cause for us to communicate the fact that
this is offensive to us. Profanity used out of our presence
by nonbelievers probably would not be an occasion for
us to confront the offenders.

Cohabitation we know to be a serious sin in which
Latter-day Saints must not engage, whatever the
circumstances. When practiced by those around us, it
can be private behavior or something we are asked to
condone, sponsor, or facilitate. In the balance between
truth and tolerance, tolerance can be dominant where
the behavior does not involve us personally. If the
cohabitation does involve us personally, we should be
governed by our duty to truth. For example, it is one
thing to ignore serious sins when they are private; it is
quite another thing to be asked to sponsor or impliedly
endorse them, such as by housing them in our own homes.

On Sabbath observance, Latter-day Saints know that we
are taught to observe the Sabbath day in a different way
than many other Christians. Most of us are troubled
by packed shopping centers and other commercial
activities on the Sabbath. Perhaps we should explain
our belief that our observance of the Sabbath, including
our partaking of the sacrament, restores us spiritually
and makes us better people for the rest of the week.
Then, to other believers, we might express appreciation
for the fact that we share common ground on what is
most vital because each of us believes in God and in
the existence of absolute truth, even though we differ in
our definitions of these fundamentals. Beyond that, we
should remember the Savior’s teaching that we should
avoid contention (see 3 Nephi 11:29–30) and that our
example and our preaching should “be the warning
voice, every man to his neighbor, in mildness and in
meekness” (D&C 38:41).

In all of this we should not presume to judge our
neighbors or associates on the ultimate effect of their
behaviors. That judgment is the Lord’s, not ours.

Elder Dalin H. Oaks

Absolute Truth

First, all persons are brothers and sisters under God,
taught within their various religions to love and do
good to one another.

A second absolute truth—this living
with differences is what the gospel of Jesus Christ
teaches us we must do.

The kingdom of God is like a leaven, Jesus taught (see
Matthew 13:33). A leaven—yeast—is hidden away in the
larger mass until the whole is leavened, which means
raised by its influence. Our Savior also taught that His
followers will have tribulation in the world, that their
numbers and dominions will be small (see 1 Nephi
14:12), and that they will be hated because they are not
of the world (see John 17:14). But that is our role. We
are called to live with other children of God who do not
share our faith or our values and who do not have the
covenant obligations we have assumed. So it was that,
at the conclusion of His ministry, Jesus prayed to the
Father, “Not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil”
(John 17:15). We are to be in the world, but not of the
world.
25. Since followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to be a
leaven—not to be taken out of the world, but to remain
in it—we must seek tolerance from those who hate
us for not being of the world. As part of this, we will
sometimes need to challenge laws that would impair our
freedom to practice our faiths, doing so in reliance on
our constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion.

Our tolerance and respect for others and their beliefs
does not cause us to abandon our commitment to the
truths we understand and the covenants we have made.

That is a third absolute truth: We do not abandon the
truth and our covenants. We are cast as combatants in
the war between truth and error. There is no middle
ground. We must stand up for truth, even while we
practice tolerance and respect for beliefs and ideas
different from our own and for the people who hold
them.
32. While we must practice tolerance and respect for
others and their beliefs, including their constitutional
freedom to explain and advocate their positions, we are
not required to respect and tolerate wrong behavior.
Our duty to truth requires us to seek relief from some
behavior that is wrong.

Judge Righteous Judgments

In this regard—this call for compassion and loyalty to
the commandments—there is sometimes a chance for
a misunderstanding, especially among young people
who may think we are not supposed to judge anything,
that we are never to make a value assessment of any
kind. We have to help each other with that because the
Savior makes it clear that in some situations we have to
judge, we are under obligation to judge—as when He
said, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither
cast ye your pearls before swine.” 17 That sounds like a
judgment to me. The alternative is to surrender to the
moral relativism of a deconstructionist, postmodern
world which, pushed far enough, posits that ultimately
nothing is eternally true or especially sacred and,
therefore, no one position on any given issue matters
more than any other. And that simply is not true.
34. In this process of evaluation, we are not called on
to condemn others, but we are called upon to make
decisions every day that reflect judgment—we hope
good judgment. Elder Dallin H. Oaks once referred to
these kinds of decisions as “intermediate judgments,”
which we often have to make for our own safety or
for the safety of others, as opposed to what he called
“final judgments,” which can only be made by God,
who knows all the facts. 18 (Remember, in the scripture
quoted earlier, that the Savior said these are to be
“righteous judgments,” not self-righteous judgments,
which is a very different thing.)

For example, parents have to exercise good judgment
regarding the safety and welfare of their children every
day. No one would fault a parent who says children
must eat their vegetables or who restricts a child from
running into a street roaring with traffic. So why should
a parent be faulted who cares, at a little later age, what
time those children come home at night, or what the
moral and behavioral standards of their friends are, or at
what age they date, or whether or not they experiment
with drugs or pornography or engage in sexual
transgression? No, we are making decisions and taking
stands and reaffirming our values—in short, making
“intermediate judgments”—all the time, or at least we

When we face such situations in complex social issues
in a democratic society, it can be very challenging and,
to some, confusing. Young people may ask about this
position taken or that policy made by the Church,
saying: “Well, we don’t believe we should live or behave
in such and such a way, but why do we have to make
other people do the same? Don’t they have their free
agency? Aren’t we being self-righteous and judgmental,

The Eternal Family Reading Packet Unit 6
forcing our beliefs on others, demanding that they act in
a certain way?” In those situations you are going to have
to explain sensitively why some principles are defended
and some sins opposed wherever they are found because
the issues and the laws involved are not just social or
political but eternal in their consequence. And while not
wishing to offend those who believe differently from us,
we are even more anxious not to offend God, or as the
scripture says, “not offend him who is your lawgiver”
19 —and I am speaking here of serious moral laws.
should be.

But to make the point, let me use the example of a lesser
law. It is a little like a teenager saying, “Now that I can
drive, I know I am supposed to stop at a red light, but do
we really have to be judgmental and try to get everyone
else to stop at red lights? Does everyone have to do
what we do? Don’t others have their agency? Must they
behave as we do?” You then have to explain why, yes, we
do hope all will stop at a red light. And you have to do
this without demeaning those who transgress or who
believe differently than we believe because, yes, they do
have their moral agency.

My young friends, there is a wide variety of beliefs in
this world, and there is moral agency for all, but no
one is entitled to act as if God is mute on these subjects
or as if commandments only matter if there is public
agreement over them. In the 21st century we cannot
flee any longer. We are going to have to fight for laws
and circumstances and environments that allow the free
exercise of religion and our franchise in it. That is one
way we can tolerate being in Babylon but not of it.

Elder Holland

The Test

It is easy to be righteous when things are calm and life
is good and everything is going smoothly. The test is
when there is real trial or temptation, when there is
pressure and fatigue, anger and fear, or the possibility
of real transgression. Can we be faithful then? That is
the question because “Israel, Israel, God is calling.” Such
integrity is, of course, the majesty of “Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do” 14 —right when
forgiving and understanding and being generous about
your crucifiers is the last thing that anyone less perfect
than the Savior of the world would want to do. But we
have to try; we have to wish to be strong. Whatever the
situation or the provocation or the problem, no true
disciple of Christ can “check his religion at the door.”

Elder Holland

A Father's Love

Father—Your Role, Your Responsibility
L. Tom Perry Of the Council of the Twelve, General Conference 1977

First, as a husband: The first instruction given to man and woman immediately following the creation was, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24.)

So God in His divine plan ordained that marriage was to bring about his basic organizational unit, the family. The role of husband and wife was clearly defined from the very beginning. In the Lord’s plan, these roles are unchanged and eternal.

Second is your responsibility to provide peace and security in your home. It is your duty to provide adequately for your family. You must prepare yourself for this responsibility and have the ambition to see that it is accomplished. Your wife should live her life with the comforting assurance that so long as you are healthy and well you will take care of her first above all others. She should not be forced into the labor market unless you become incapacitated. She must be allowed to fulfill her role as the Lord intended it for her.

Third, it is a twenty-four-hour-a-day job to show appreciation and consideration for her. The Lord has warned you in the scriptures by saying:

“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. …

“No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by longsuffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.” (D&C 121:39, 41.)

She is not your chattel. She does not have to follow you in unrighteousness. She is your wife, your companion, your best friend, your full partner. The Lord has blessed her with great potential, talent, and ability. She, too, must be given the opportunity for self-expression and development. Her happiness should be your greatest concern. Learn how to magnify both your roles in order that the husband and wife can be found having fulfilling and happy lives together.

Brethren, your first and most responsible role in life and in the eternities is to be a righteous husband.

Second only to the title of husband is that of father. Next to eternal life, the greatest of all gifts that our Father in heaven can bestow on a man is the opportunity of being blessed with sons and daughters. Every healthy and normal son of God should have the joy of bestowing the following gifts on his children:

First, an honored and respected name.
Second, every child needs a sense of security.
Third, an opportunity for development.
Fourth, give your children the opportunity of having a joyful, happy childhood.

Fathers

Excerpts from "The Role of Fathers - Ensign January 1974, President A. Theodore Tuttle Of the First Council of the Seventy

The father exercises his spiritual leadership in the home by calling his family to prayer each morning and evening. Weekly family home evening, likewise, is called and presided over by the father, though all others participate.

The father is the protector of the home. He guards it against the intrusion of evil from without. Formerly he protected his home with weapons and shuttered windows. Today the task is more complex. Barred doors and windows protect only against the intrusion of a corporeal creature.

Fathers, you will have to live close to the Lord. Develop a sensitivity to the impressions of the Spirit.

The father is to be an example of the highest Christian virtues. To walk uprightly in the admonition of the Lord requires not only patience and forbearance, but an exercise in constant practice of all the Christian virtues by each family member. Perhaps the Lord knew this when he instituted the family.

In the family relationship, we find our best laboratory in which to practice celestial living.

The Importance of Celestial Marriage

Civil marriages are definitely ended when death comes. That is absolute. The Lord has so declared it. I have heard women say, “But my husband was a good man. I know we’ll be husband and wife in eternity.” Even though sincere, they are wrong!... Now if they have never heard the gospel, nor had an opportunity to accept it, that is something different. They may hear it in the spirit world and the work may be done vicariously for them on earth, and they may be united. 

But for us who have heard the word of the Lord, who have the scriptures with us, who have had many witnesses and many testimonies, who have been informed—tomorrow is too late! We may be angels, if we are righteous enough. Even unmarried, we may reach the celestial kingdom, but we will be ministering angels only.

You see, it is not a matter of righteousness only. That is one of the two important elements, but righteousness alone is not sufficient. There must be both the righteousness and the ordinances.

Any of you would go around the world for the sealing ordinance if you knew its importance, if you realized how great it is. No distance, no shortage of funds, no situation would ever keep you from being married in the holy temple of the Lord.” (President Spencer W. Kimball, “The Importance of Celestial Marriage,” Tambuli, July 1980, 1; emphasis added.)

This is not the Beginning nor the End

Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president: “As spirit daughters of God, women ‘received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth’ (D&C 138:56) on the earth. They were among the ‘noble and great ones’ (D&C 138:55) who ‘shouted for joy’ (Job 38:7) at the creation of the earth because they would be given a physical body with the opportunity to be proven in a mortal sphere (see Abraham 3:25).

They wished to work side by side with righteous men to accomplish eternal goals that neither can attain independently. Female roles did not begin on earth, and they do not end here. A woman who treasures motherhood on earth will treasure motherhood in the world to come” (“A ‘Mother Heart,’ ” Liahona and Ensign, May 2004, 76).

Elder Oaks
“The purpose of mortal life and the mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to prepare the sons and daughters of God for their destiny—to become like our heavenly parents.

“Our eternal destiny—exaltation in the celestial kingdom—is made possible only through the atonement of Jesus Christ (through which we became and can remain ‘innocent before God’ [D&C 93:38]) and is only available to a man and a woman who have entered into and been faithful to the covenants of an eternal marriage in a temple of God (see D&C 131:1–4; 132). …

“Because Satan desires that ‘all men might be miserable like unto himself’ (2 Ne. 2:27), his most strenuous efforts are directed at encouraging those choices and actions that will thwart God’s plan for his children. He seeks to undermine the principle of individual accountability, to persuade us to misuse our sacred powers of procreation, to discourage marriage and childbearing by worthy men and women, and to confuse what it means to be male or female” (“Same-Gender Attraction,” Ensign, Oct. 1995, 7–8).

When Satan wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bring the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees.

He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O or casseroles.

When Satan truly wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he attempts to confuse gender and attacks God’s plan for his Spirit Children.”
(“The Sacred Responsibilities of Parenthood”, BYU Devotional, August 19, 2003).

By Divine Design

By divine design, men and women are intended to progress together toward perfection and a fulness of glory. Because of their distinctive temperaments and capacities, males and females each bring to a marriage relationship unique perspectives and experiences. The man and the woman contribute differently but equally to a oneness and a unity that can be achieved in no other way. The man completes and perfects the woman and the woman completes and perfects the man as they learn from and mutually strengthen and bless each other. “Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:11; italics added)...

By divine design, both a man and a woman are needed to bring children into mortality and to provide the best setting for the rearing and nurturing of children...

 Just as the unique characteristics of both males and females contribute to the completeness of a marriage relationship, so those same characteristics are vital to the rearing, nurturing, and teaching of children. “Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.” 6

As men and women, as husbands and wives, and as Church leaders, can we see how the importance of eternal marriage can be understood only within the context of the Father’s plan of happiness? The doctrine of the plan leads men and women to hope and prepare for eternal marriage, and it defeats the fears and overcomes the uncertainties that may cause some individuals to delay or avoid marriage. A correct understanding of the plan also strengthens our resolve to steadfastly honor the covenant of eternal marriage. Our individual learning, our teaching, and our testifying in both the home and at church will be magnified as we ponder and more fully understand this truth.

Satan works unremittingly to confuse understanding about gender, to promote the premature and unrighteous use of procreative power, and to hinder righteous marriage precisely because marriage is ordained of God and the family is central to the plan of happiness. The adversary’s attacks upon eternal marriage will continue to increase in intensity, frequency, and sophistication.

Because today we are engaged in a war for the welfare of marriage and the home, in my latest reading of the Book of Mormon I paid particular attention to the ways the Nephites prepared for their battles against the Lamanites. I noted that the people of Nephi “were aware of the intent of [their enemy], and therefore they did prepare to meet them” (Alma 2:12; italics added). As I read and studied, I learned that understanding the intent of an enemy is a key prerequisite to effective preparation. We likewise should consider the intent of our enemy in this latter-day war.

The Father’s plan is designed to provide direction for His children, to help them become happy, and to bring them safely home to Him. Lucifer’s attacks on the plan are intended to make the sons and daughters of God confused and unhappy and to halt their eternal progression. The overarching intent of the father of lies is that all of us would become “miserable like unto himself” (2 Ne. 2:27), and he works to warp the elements of the Father’s plan he hates the most. Satan does not have a body, he cannot marry, and he will not have a family. And he persistently strives to confuse the divinely appointed purposes of gender, marriage, and family. Throughout the world, we see growing evidence of the effectiveness of Satan’s efforts.

More recently the devil has attempted to combine and legally validate confusion about gender and marriage. As we look beyond mortality and into eternity, it is easy to discern that the counterfeit alternatives the adversary advocates can never lead to the completeness that is made possible through the sealing together of a man and a woman, to the happiness of righteous marriage, to the joy of posterity, or to the blessing of eternal progression.

Given what we know about our enemy’s intent, each of us should be especially vigilant in seeking personal inspiration as to how we can protect and safeguard our own marriages—and how we can learn and teach correct principles in the home and in our Church assignments about the eternal significance of gender and of the role of marriage in the Father’s plan.

Eternal marriage is not merely a temporary legal contract that can be terminated at any time for almost any reason. Rather, it is a sacred covenant with God that can be binding in time and throughout all eternity. Faithfulness and fidelity in marriage must not simply be attractive words spoken in sermons; rather, they should be principles evident in our own covenant marriage relationships.

Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan
David A. Bednar
Elder David A. Bednar
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Different but Equal

The single purpose of Lucifer is to oppose the great plan of happiness, to corrupt the purest, most beautiful and appealing experiences of life: romance, love, marriage, and parenthood.12 The specters of heartbreak and guilt13 follow him about. Only repentance can heal what he hurts.

The plan of happiness requires the righteous union of male and female, man and woman, husband and wife.14 Doctrines teach us how to respond to the compelling natural impulses which too often dominate how we behave.
A body patterned after the image of God was created for Adam,15 and he was introduced into the Garden.16 At first, Adam was alone. He held the priesthood,17 but alone, he could not fulfill the purposes of his creation.18

No other man would do. Neither alone nor with other men could Adam progress. Nor could Eve with another woman. It was so then. It is so today.

There is nothing in the revelations which suggests that to be a man rather than to be a woman is preferred in the sight of God, or that He places a higher value on sons than on daughters.

All virtues listed in the scriptures—love, joy, peace, faith, godliness, charity—are shared by both men and women,25 and the highest priesthood ordinance in mortality is given only to man and woman together.26

After the Fall, natural law had far-reaching sovereignty over mortal birth. There are what President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., called “pranks” of nature,27 which cause a variety of abnormalities, deficiencies, and deformities. However unfair they seem to man’s way of reasoning, they somehow suit the purposes of the Lord in the proving of mankind.

The following of every worthy instinct, the responding to every righteous urge, the consummating of every exalting human relationship are provided for and approved in the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ and protected by commandments revealed to His church.

Except Adam and Eve by nature be different from one another, they could not multiply and fill the earth.28 The complementing differences are the very key to the plan of happiness.

For Time and All Eternity

Boyd K. Packer

Mother - A Holy Calling

For Time and All Eternity

Boyd K. Packer 

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

General Conference, Oct. 1993

Read full talk here

“The Lord has told us that it is the duty of every husband and wife to obey the command given to Adam to multiply and replenish the earth, so that the legions of choice spirits waiting for their tabernacles of flesh may come here and move forward under God’s great design to become perfect souls, for without these fleshly tabernacles they cannot progress to their God-planned destiny. Thus, every husband and wife should become a father and mother in Israel to children born under the holy, eternal covenant.

“By bringing these choice spirits to earth, each father and each mother assume towards the tabernacled spirit and towards the Lord Himself by having taken advantage of the opportunity He offered, an obligation of the most sacred kind, because the fate of that spirit in the eternities to come, the blessings or punishments which shall await it in the hereafter, depend, in great part, upon the care, the teachings, the training which the parents shall give to that spirit.

“No parent can escape that obligation and that responsibility, and for the proper meeting thereof, the Lord will hold us to a strict accountability. No loftier duty than this can be assumed by mortals.”

Speaking of mothers, the First Presidency said: “Motherhood thus becomes a holy calling, a sacred dedication for carrying out the Lord’s plans, a consecration of devotion to the uprearing and fostering, the nurturing in body, mind, and spirit, of those who kept their first estate and who come to this earth for their second estate ‘to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.’ (Abr. 3:25) To lead them to keep their second estate is the work of motherhood, and ‘they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.’ (op. cit.) [Abr. 3:26]

“This divine service of motherhood can be rendered only by mothers. It may not be passed to others. Nurses cannot do it; public nurseries cannot do it; hired help cannot do it—only mother, aided as much as may be by the loving hands of father, brothers, and sisters, can give the full needed measure of watchful care.”

The First Presidency counseled that “the mother who entrusts her child to the care of others, that she may do non-motherly work, whether for gold, for fame, or for civic service, should remember that ‘a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.’ (Prov. 29:15) In our day the Lord has said that unless parents teach their children the doctrines of the Church ‘the sin be upon the heads of the parents.’ (D&C 68:25)

“Motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind. It places her who honors its holy calling and service next to the angels.”³⁷

That message and warning from the First Presidency is needed more, not less, today than when it was given. And no voice from any organization of the Church on any level of administration equals that of the First Presidency.³⁸

The Proclamation on the Family: For Every One of Us

"Briefly, here are some of the ways I feel the proclamation can be applied to any Church member, young or old, married or unmarried, empty nest or full.

First, the proclamation bolsters self-worth by reminding us that “all human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God” and that “each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.” Nothing in that statement is exclusive. It does not say, “You are beloved only if you are a parent” or “You are beloved only if you are married.” It tells us that all human beings are loved. In addition, it reaffirms that Heavenly Father wants what is best for us. What tremendous blessings!

Second, the proclamation offers valuable guidelines for everyday living. It explains the plan of salvation and the principle of chastity. It states, “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
                                                                                           
Deena King - Ensign Dec. 2000

Link to talk

Marriage and Family

Elder Eyring taught, "Melchizedek Priesthood holders who are fathers in sealed families have been taught what they must do. There is nothing that has come or will come into your family as important as the sealing blessings. There is nothing more important than honoring the marriage and family covenants you have made or will make in the temples of God."

"Let me suggest four things you can do as a priesthood father to lift and lead your family home again to be with Heavenly Father and the Savior.

First, gain and keep a sure witness that the keys of the priesthood are with us and held by the President of the Church. Pray for that every day. The answer will come with an increase in determination to lead your family, in your feelings of hope, and with greater happiness in your service. You will be more cheerful and optimistic, a great blessing for your wife and family.

The second imperative is to love your wife. It will take faith and humility to put her interests above your own in the struggles of life. You have the responsibility to provide for and to nurture the family with her while serving others. That can at times consume all the energy and strength you have. Age and illness may increase your wife’s needs. If you choose even then to put her happiness above your own, I promise you that your love for her will increase.

Third, enlist the entire family to love each other. President Ezra Taft Benson taught:

“In an eternal sense, salvation is a family affair. …

“Above all else, children need to know and feel they are loved, wanted, and appreciated. They need to be assured of that often. Obviously, this is a role parents should fill, and most often the mother can do it best.”10

But another crucial source for that feeling of being loved is love from other children in the family. Consistent care of brothers and sisters for each other will come only with persistent effort by parents and the help of God. You know that is true from experience in your own families. And it is confirmed each time you read of the family conflicts faced by righteous Lehi and his wife, Sariah, in the Book of Mormon record."

"The fourth opportunity to lead your family in the Lord’s way comes when discipline is needed. We can meet our obligation to correct in the Lord’s way and then lead our children toward eternal life.

You will remember the words, but you may not have seen their power for a Melchizedek Priesthood holder preparing his family for living in the same sociality that they will have in the celestial kingdom. You remember the words. They are so familiar:

“No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

“By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—

“Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;"