This Has Been A Glorious Conference...

• This has been a glorious conference. ¶

Brothers and sisters, I have thrilled as I have listened to the counsel of inspired men. I have made many resolutions to do and be better. ¶

I am grateful beyond expression for having been reared in a home of faith where testimony was nurtured early and continually. Today I bear you my testimony that I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that President David O. McKay is a living prophet today. ¶

Importance of the Family

Frequently we perform marriages in the temple. These marriages are properly called celestial marriages, temple sealings, or eternal marriages. The thing that we really do is to organize the most basic unit in the Church — the family. The family is the most important relationship in this life. In reality, the bride and groom are called to assignments in the family from which they are never released, except by transgression. This is the one eternal unit which can exist in the presence of God. ¶

A man's home is his most important consideration; not his business nor farm nor political office, not even his church or civic service. It is his family. These other things only provide the means to become a provident husband and exemplary father. The most noble achievement of God or man is the glorified family unit. "No other success," President McKay has emphasized, "can compensate for failure in the home." (The Improvement Era, June 1964, p. 445.) ¶

A Divine Institution

The family is a divine institution. ¶

The first family unit was organized by our Heavenly Father: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. ¶

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2:18, 24.) The Lord has instructed his children in the basic family relationships. ¶

"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else." (D&C 42:22.) "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." (Col. 3:19.) "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." ¶

(Col. 3:18.) "Thou shalt live together in love. ¶

. . ." (D&C 42:45.) "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." ¶

(Col. 3:21.) "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." (Col. 3:20.) The home is the source of happiness, serenity, and peace. Only in a home filled with unity and love can man or woman find the pure, undiluted heavenly joys. There is no substitute, though Lucifer would tell men otherwise. ¶

Home the Teaching Unit

The home is the teaching unit of the Church. The parents are the teachers. ¶

The course is more extensive than a university curriculum. Always parents are venturing through it for the first time. The classes start at birth and never terminate. There are some graduations, but the schooling continues. ¶

Some mistakenly suppose that while children are young, they do not need their mother. Hence, she seeks employment outside the home. Few things could be more detrimental to the family at any time. Bloom's study of a thousand children reveals that "it is especially noteworthy that for a number of the most significant human characteristics the most rapid period of development appears to be in the first five years of life. . . . ¶

"The child enters first grade after having gone through perhaps the most rapid period of development which will take place throughout his life. . . . ¶

Much of the variation of children at the beginning of the first grade can be attributed to variations in the home environments as well as to hereditary influence." (Benjamin S. Bloom, Stability and Change in Human Characteristics.) ¶

Truths to Be Taught

Someone is to teach children to pray, to walk uprightly before the Lord, to seek earnestly the riches of eternity, to teach faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost, and to observe the Sabbath day. Children are to be taught to observe the Word of Wisdom — to abstain from the use of alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee. Children are to be taught obedience to parents and the law. ¶

Somewhere they are to learn to be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and to do good to all men. They are to be taught to honor their parents. They are to learn the meaning of integrity and work and service. ¶

The responsibility to teach all these things rests in the home. ¶

Testimony to Be Inculcated

Children are not born with testimonies of the divinity of this work. ¶

Testimony must be inculcated into their lives early and continually. The scriptures must be studied if we are to develop a generation of believers. ¶

Recently I was in the home of a fine stake president and participated in their daily scripture class. ¶

For the past year, he and his family have been reading the scriptures together for 15 minutes each morning. In that time, they have completed their study of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and half the Book of Mormon. What a joy. What an example. A wise father. A sustaining mother. Fortunate children. ¶

Help for the Family

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized to help the family. No other organization provides more help. The whole program of the Church is correlated to supplement the teachings of the home. The Church speaks out boldly against the common evil of this day — the deliberate limiting of families by birth control. It teaches, rather, the sacred obligation resting upon husband and wife to bring children into the world. ¶

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. ¶

"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. ¶

"Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. . . ." (Ps. 127:3-5.) ¶

Church Program Assists Home

The Church counsels members to set aside one night each week to meet in a home night, to study and have fun and regulate the home affairs. Only those who follow this wise counsel know how eagerly youngsters respond to such an occasion. ¶

The Church sends home teachers to visit families at least monthly. They carry a message of encouragement. ¶

They are a second witness in the home. ¶

To assist families, the Church has organized a wide range of activities where young people can find wholesome companionship and personal development for all ages. ¶

It is a cardinal teaching of the Church that the man is the head of the family. He is to be the breadwinner. It teaches him how to preside in that home through his priesthood power. It teaches that the wife is to be a companion to her husband and stand by his side. There is to be no confusion as to the roles of husband and wife. Children are to identify with a strong, manly father. They identify with a lovely mother who sustains and supports but does not usurp the leadership of the father. The mother is queen of the home. The Church teaches that womanhood is glorified by motherhood. President McKay has said, "Wherever a woman is, or whatever a woman does, she is at her best, her divinest best, at home! ¶

There is the center of her power." ¶

Challenge to the Family

The family as an institution is under tremendous pressure. It is important to know, therefore, that the family is a problem-solving unit. The husband and wife cannot generate more problems than they can solve if they will follow the counsel the Lord has given. ¶

The solution to family problems is not separation, but repentance. ¶

Couples are to continue to court, to pray, to be one. They are to keep alive the magic and thrill of romance and learn how to express love. Couples young and old must learn to communicate with one another. This one thing alone can solve most marital problems. ¶

The challenge to the family is great. ¶

We are here to practice successful family living. Proper family living makes heaven on earth and develops Gods in embryo. Success in the home leads to the abundant life with our Eternal Father. May we all seek, ever more earnestly, for the eternal riches of a wholesome, honorable home, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. ¶