The Family

Tomorrow, I am giving this lesson to all the yw.  That picture is the lesson.  That's it.  Each of the girls is getting a copy to mark up.  We are just going to read it together and discuss it.  I'm hoping to once again channel my most favorite teacher and have an amazing lesson with lots of participation.  Fingers crossed.  Depending on time we may or may not get to all of the scriptures and quotes that support it.  

I have been thinking about everything going on in the world with the decline of our morals and the redefinition of marriage and the serious confusion some of my friends have regarding this has me wanting to focus heavily on this one proclamation (was that a run on sentence?).  There is little room for doubt or confusion on what we believe as members of this church.  Of all the walls of homes this document is hanging, I wonder how many actually know what it says.  It's time to know...or remember!

Should you be interested in knowing or refreshing your memory, the document is here for the studying (or you can get a fresh unmarked copy online).  Some of the (there are oodles more) scriptures and quotes that support it are listed below.  There was also an excellent talk given by Julie B Beck called "Teaching the doctrine of the family."  This would be a great addition to the study of the importance of the family.  Enjoy :)

Romans 8:16-17 "the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 

and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together"

Neil L Anderson: "This commandment has not been forgotten or set aside in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints.  We express deep gratitude for the enormous faith shown by husbands and wives (especially our wives) in their willingness to have children.  When to have a child and how many children to have are private decisions to be made between a husband and wife and the Lord.  These are sacred decisions-decisions that should be made with sincere prayer and acted on with great faith."

Neil L Anderson: " We cannot always explain the difficulties of our morality.  sometimes life seems very unfair-especially when our greatest desire is to do exactly what the Lord has commanded.  As the Lord's servant, I assure you that his promise is certain. "faithful members whose circumstances do not allow them to receive the blessings of eternal marriage and parenthood in this life will receive all the promised blessing in the eternities. [as] they keep the covenants they have made with God"

D&C 131:1-4 "In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees;

and in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]

and if he does not, he cannot obtain it

he may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have and increase

Hebrews 12:9 " furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Mosiah 4:14-15 " and ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.  

But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love on another, and to serve one another."

L Tom Perry: "Through all the fast-paced changes occurring around us, we earnestly pray and work to ensure that the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ endure.  Already some of them are in jeopardy of being lost.  At the top of the list of these values and, therefore, prime targets of the adversary, are the sanctity of marriage and the central importance of families.  They provide an anchor and the safe harbor of a home where each child of a loving Heavenly Father can be influenced for good and acquire eternal values. 

Lessons taught in the home by goodly parents are becoming increasingly important in today's world, where the influence of the adversary is so widespread.  As we know, he is attempting to erode and destroy the very foundation of our society-the family.  In clever and carefully camouflaged ways, he is attacking commitment to family life throughout the world and undermining the culture and covenants of faithful Latter-day Saints.  Parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility.  While other institutions such as church and school can assist parent to "train up a child in the way he or she should go"(proverbs 22:6), this responsibility ultimately rests on the parents. According to the great plan of happiness, it is goodly parents who are entrusted with the care and development of Heavenly Father's children."

D&C 138:48 "Foreshadowing the great work to be done in the temples of the Lord in the dispensation of the fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their parents, lest he whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming."

Thomas S Monson: "Where once the standard of the Church and the standards of society were mostly compatible, now there is a wide chasm between us, and it's growing ever wider.

The Savior of mankind described Himself as being in the world but not of the world.  We also can be in the world but not of the world as we reject false concepts and false teachings and remain true to that which God has commanded."