Family

1.“As parents, we should remember that our lives may be the book from the family library which the children most treasure. Are our examples worthy of emulation? Do we live in such a way that a son or a daughter may say, ‘I want to follow my dad,’ or ‘I want to be like my mother’? Unlike the book on the library shelf, the covers of which shield its contents, our lives cannot be closed. Parents, we truly are an open book in the library of learning of our homes.”
President Thomas S. Monson
( "Dedication Day", Ensign, Nov. 2000, 65.)

2.“In a world of turmoil and uncertainty, it is more important than ever to make our families the center of our lives and the top of our priorities. Families lie at the center of our Heavenly Father’s plan.”
Elder L. Tom Perry
“The Importance of the Family” Ensign, April. 2003

3.“Because of the importance of the family to the eternal plan of happiness, Satan makes a major effort to destroy the sanctity of the family, demean the importance of the role of men and women, encourage moral uncleanliness and violations of the sacred law of chastity, and to discourage parents from placing the bearing and rearing of children as one of their highest priorities.”

Elder Robert D. Hales

“The Eternal Family” Ensign, Nov. 1996

4.“Today I call upon members of the Church and on committed parents, grandparents, and extended family members everywhere to hold fast to this great proclamation, to make it a banner not unlike General Moroni’s “title of liberty,” and to commit ourselves to live by its precepts. As we are all part of a family, the proclamation applies to everyone.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard

“What Matters Most Is What Last Longest” Liahona Nov. 2005

5.“The family is safe within the Church. We are not in doubt as to the course we must follow. It was given in the beginning, and guidance from on high is renewed as need may be.”

President Boyd K. Packer

“The Father and the Family” General Conference April 1994

6."Remember, your goal is exaltation and eternal life.  That goal is God's glory.  Too many young men postpone dating and marriage to pursue careers or hobbies.  Young men, it is time for you to be men "'men of God'" who with women of God pursue progressive steps of love, courtship, marriage, and family.  Marriage of husband and wife is ordained of God.  They become a family which is the preserver of the human race.  The family is the engine that drives the economy. The family is the gateway to eternal progression, exaltation, and everlasting joy.
Elder Russell M. Nelson, "Vision Past, Present, and Future", BYU Hawaii Commencement Address 09 April 2011

7."We have programs and activities in both the family and the Church.  Each is so interrelated that service to one is service to the other.  When children see their parents faithfully perform Church callings, it strengthens their family relationships.  When families are strong, the Church is strong.  The two run in parallel. Each is important and necessary, and each must be conducted with careful concern for the other.  Church programs and activities should not  be so all-encompassing that families cannot have everyone present for family time.  And family activities should not be scheduled in conflict with sacrament meeting or other vital church meetings."
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, "Priesthood Authority in the Family and in the Church," October 2005 General Conference

8."That happens in marriages, too, and in other relationships we have. I can’t tell you the number of couples I have counseled who, when they are deeply hurt or even just deeply stressed, reach farther and farther into the past to find yet a bigger brick to throw through the window “pain” of their marriage. When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal." (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "Remember Lot's Wife", BYU Devotional, 13 January 2009)


9."We know that the family is a sacred institution and that in this temple a man and a woman may be sealed for time and all eternity. May those who are so sealed honor the covenants they make to find true, everlasting happiness and joy in their posterity."  (President Boyd K. Packer, Brigham City Utah Temple Dedication, 23 September 2012).


10."Furthermore, many of the social restraints which in the past have helped to reinforce and to shore up the family are dissolving and disappearing. The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us". (President Spencer W. Kimball, "Families Can Be Eternal", October 1980 General Conference).



Capstone Position Statement:

The family is under attack.  If Satan can destroy the family, then he can bring down the foundations of civilization and destroy it eternally.  The family is central to Heavenly Fathers plan, I have been saddened to see how society has lowered its standards and expectations of the family and has turned it into a circus act.

I know that Heavenly Father gave us families not only as part of his plan for happiness but to continue the link that starts with the beginning of time.

We need to protect our families, we need to teach them to be strong and stand up for that which is right.  We need to love and protect each other and help each other and those around us.  We need to be committed to each other.

The proclamation was issued as a warning to the world; its words are clear and precise.  My family has the Proclamation hanging up in our home as a reminder of what the family is and our roles and responsibilities in it.  I will do all I can to protect the my family and the families of others, we have committed ourselves to live by its precepts.