Preservation of the Family

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley

In 1966, BYU Commencement address he said, The preservation of the family will be one of the great and serious challenges facing you in the future into which you come.

The family is under attack. All across the world families are falling apart. The place to begin to improve society is in the home.
If you want to reform a nation, you begin with families
No nation is stronger than the homes of its people.

The family is divine. It was instituted by our Heavenly Father. It encompasses the most sacred of all relationships. Only through its organization can the purposes of the Lord be fulfilled.
I am satisfied that nothing will assure greater success in the hazardous undertaking of parenthood than a program of (4) family life that comes from the marvelous teaching of the gospel; that the father of the home may be clothed with the priesthood of God; that it is his privilege and obligation as a steward of our Heavenly Father’s children to provide for their needs; that he is to govern in the home in the spirit of the priesthood ‘by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; (D&C 121:41-42);
And that mothers in the home is a daughter of God, a soul of intelligence, devotion, and love who may be clothed with the Spirit of God; that it is her privilege and obligation as a steward of our Heavenly Father’s children to nurture those children in their daily needs; that she, in companionship with her husband, is also to teach her children to ‘understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands… and to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.” (D&C 68: 25, 28)
In such a home, parents are loved and not dreaded’ they are appreciated and not feared. And children are regarded as gifts of the Lord, to be cared for, nurtured, encouraged, and directed.
(Pillars of Truth, “ Ensign, Jan 1994).
The primary place in building a value system is in the home
The home is the seedbed of all true virtue. If proper values are not learned in the home, they are not likely to be learned anywhere…
The family is the basic element of society. Good homes become the foundation for the strength of any nation.

Continually he says
I plead with you to put harshness behind us, to bridle our anger, to lower our voices, and to deal with mercy and love and respect one toward another in our homes. There is no discipline in all the world like the discipline of love. It has a magic all its own.
There is too much selfishness
There is too much of worldliness in our homes”

Protect out homes

SHIRLEY R. KLEIN
“Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.” If our homes compare to the temple, what is it about the home that makes it sacred ? The dictionary meaning of “sacred”: “belonging to or dedicated to God; worthy of reverence; set apart for or dedicated to some person, object, or purpose; that [which] must not be violated or disregarded; properly immune, as from violence or interference.”
As you develop spiritual strength through everyday activities in your home, you are building strong timbers and pickets to protect your homes. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read that God has only given us spiritual commandments and that none of them are temporal (see D&C 29:35). If God’s commandments are not temporal, that means they are not limited to this life: His commandments are everlasting. We can apply this to our homes by realizing that all our actions on earth have consequences. The things we do on earth shape the person we become now and in the life to come. Thus the earthly patterns of living we create in our homes have power to influence our spiritual outcomes. Spouses can “love and care for each other and for their children” and foster development of characteristics to prepare them for eternity.

Home, a refuge from the storm

Elder L. Tom Perry:
“We need to make our homes a place of refuge from the storm. . . . Even if the smallest openings are left unattended, negative influences can penetrate the very walls of our homes.

President Spencer W. Kimball said 25 years ago
“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.7
The battle for your homes is real. To preserve your family you will need to believe deeply and actively in family life in the home and take action.”

Home

Home is where we preside. It doesn’t’ matter what it is, how expensive or how humble it is, what matters is what is going on within its walls.