Parenthood
Daily Gems - 4 November 2009
The Examples We Need to Be
“May I suggest that our ability and our credibility to exemplify reverence for God is strengthened as we show respect for each other. In today’s society, the standards of decorum, dignity, and courtesy are assailed on every side and in every form of media. As parents and leaders, our examples of respect for each other are critical for our youth and children because they are watching not only the media—they are watching us! Are we the examples we need to be?”
Topics: Parenthood, Example
Family Gems - 2 November 2009
Parents Must Make Their Convictions Apparent
“I think some parents may not understand that even when they feel secure in their own minds regarding matters of personal testimony, they can nevertheless make that faith too difficult for their children to detect. We can be reasonably active, meeting-going Latter-day Saints, but if we do not live lives of gospel integrity and convey to our children powerful heartfelt convictions regarding the truthfulness of the Restoration and the divine guidance of the Church from the First Vision to this very hour, then those children may, to our regret but not surprise, turn out not to be visibly active, meeting-going Latter-day Saints or sometimes anything close to it.”
Topics: Parenthood
Family Gems - 9 October 2009
Parents’ Lives Are an Open Book for Children
“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.”
Topics: Parenthood
Family Gems - 29 June 2009
Parents and Children Are Admonished to Express Love to One Another
“To you parents, express your love to your children. Pray for them that they may be able to withstand the evils of the world. Pray that they may grow in faith and testimony. Pray that they may pursue lives of goodness and of service to others.
“Children, let your parents know you love them. Let them know how much you appreciate all they have done and continue to do for you.”
Topics: Children, Parenthood
Family Gems - 8 June 2009
Parents Can Offer Great Wisdom to Their Children
“When you are willing to listen and learn, some of life’s most meaningful teachings come from those who have gone before you. They have walked where you are walking and have experienced many of the things you are experiencing. If you listen and respond to their counsel, they can help guide you toward choices that will be for your benefit and blessing and steer you away from decisions that can destroy you. As you look to your parents and others who have gone before you, you will find examples of faith, commitment, hard work, dedication, and sacrifice that you should strive to duplicate.”
Topics: Parenthood
Family Gems - 5 June 2009
Parents Offer Examples of Respect and Reverence for Youth
“As parents and leaders, our examples of respect for each other are critical for our youth and children because they are watching not only the media—they are watching us! Are we the examples we need to be? . . .
“As parents and leaders exemplify and teach respect for others, we confirm in the hearts of our children that each of us is truly a child of God and all are brothers and sisters through eternity. We will focus on the things we have in common—on the qualities of heart that bind the family of God together, rather than on our differences.”
Topics: Children, Parenthood
Family Gems - 11 May 2009
We Strengthen Our Families as We Teach through Word and Example
"As we teach our children the gospel through word and example, our families are spiritually strengthened and fortified."
Topics: Children, Parenthood
Family Gems - 1 May 2009
Brethren Should Maintain Priorities
"As I meet with priesthood leaders, I often ask about the priorities of their various responsibilities. Usually they mention their important Church duties to which they have been called. Too few remember their responsibilities at home. Yet priesthood offices, keys, callings, and quorums are meant to exalt families. (See D&C 23:3.) Priesthood authority has been restored so that families can be sealed eternally. So brethren, your foremost priesthood duty is to nurture your marriage--to care for, respect, honor, and love your wife. Be a blessing to her and your children."
Topics: Parenthood, Fatherhood
Family Gems - 17 April 2009
Parents Must Set a Worthy Example
“The Apostle Paul’s statement to his beloved Timothy could well apply: ‘Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity’ (1 Timothy 4:12).
“Parents, live your lives in such a way that your children will find you an example worthy of emulation.”
Topics: Parenthood
Family Gems - 10 April 2009
We Must Keep Anger Out of Our Homes
“Remember, ‘a soft answer turneth away wrath’ (Prov. 15:1). When my sweetheart and I were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple, Elder Harold B. Lee gave us wise counsel: ‘When you raise your voice in anger, the Spirit departs from your home.’ We must never, out of anger, lock the door of our home or our heart to our children. Like the prodigal son, our children need to know that when they come to themselves they can turn to us for love and counsel.”
Topics: Parenthood, Love
Family Gems - 30 March 2009
We Must Cultivate a Spirit of Love in Our Homes
“Have we cultivated a spirit of love in our homes? Observed President David O. McKay, ‘A true Mormon home is one in which if Christ should chance to enter, he would be pleased to linger and to rest’ (in Conference Report, Oct. 1947, 120).
“What are we doing to ensure that our homes meet this description? Do we ourselves meet it?”
Topics: Parenthood, Love
Family Gems - 20 March 2009
Home and Family Provide Refuge
“When the seas of life are stormy, a wise mariner seeks a port of peace. The family, as we have traditionally known it, is such a refuge of safety. ‘The home is the basis of a righteous life and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfil its essential functions’ (quoted in Conference Report, Oct. 1962, 72). Actually, a home is much more than a house. A house is built of lumber, brick, and stone. A home is made of love, sacrifice, and respect. A house can be a home, and a home can be a heaven when it shelters a family. When true values and basic virtues undergird the families of society, hope will conquer despair, and faith will triumph over doubt.
“Such values, when learned and lived in our families, will be as welcome rain to parched soil. Love will be engendered; loyalty to one’s best self will be enhanced; and those virtues of character, integrity, and goodness will be fostered. The family must hold its preeminent place in our way of life because it’s the only possible base upon which a society of responsible human beings has ever found it practicable to build for the future and maintain the values they cherish in the present.”
Topics: Parenthood
Family Gems - 13 February 2009
The Power of a Parent’s Prayer
“Parents can offer a unique and wonderful kind of prayer because they are praying to the Eternal Parent of us all. There is great power in a prayer that essentially says, ‘We are steward-parents over Thy children, Father; please help us to raise them as Thou wouldst want them raised.' "
Topics: Parenthood, Prayer
Daily Gems - 10 February 2009
A Nurturing Family
"I delight in families. Recently I delighted in the birth of a new grandchild into a family that understands that parents have the solemn responsibility to rear their children in love and righteousness. The older siblings had a natural curiosity about their little sister's entrance into this world. Their first lessons about this holy subject were taught by loving parents in a sacred family setting, in the celestial climate that accompanies a new soul's birth into mortality and in the context of our Father's eternal plan. By contrast, the next day upon returning home from kindergarten, our granddaughter reported that she had learned that day in class 'a big new term called sexual abuse.' I felt concerned that at this early age children already have to be aware, for safety reasons, of the negative facets of the subject they had so beautifully talked of the night before. I delighted as never before in a nurturing family founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ."
Topics: Family, Parenthood
Family Gems - 30 January 2009
Parents Should Make Sure Their Children Know of Their Love
“To you who are parents, I say, show love to your children. You know you love them, but make certain they know it as well. They are so precious. Let them know. Call upon our Heavenly Father for help as you care for their needs each day and as you deal with the challenges which inevitably come with parenthood. You need more than your own wisdom in rearing them.”
Topics: Parenthood
Daily Gems - 27 January 2009
True Affection
"President Hinckley . . . admonished both men and women to be nurturers. He said, 'How much more beautiful would be the . . . society in which we live if every father . . . and . . . mother regarded [their] children . . . as gifts from the God of heaven. . . and brought them up with true affection in the wisdom and admonition of the Lord' ("These, Or Little Ones," Ensign, Dec. 2007, 9)."
Topics: Children, Parenthood
Family Gems - 28 November 2008
Greatest Joys in Life Come from Family Relations
“I am at a stage in my life when, because of great distances, I cannot come to know well grandchildren and, in time, great-grandchildren. There are also people who have never had the opportunity for marriage and parenthood who have the same yearning as I do to somehow be close to family. Because of the restoration of the knowledge of eternal families, we are more hopeful and more kindly in all our family relations. The greatest joys in this life center in families, as they will in the worlds to come. I am so grateful for the assurance I have that if we are faithful, the same sociality which we enjoy here in this life will be forever with us in the world to come, in eternal glory (see D&C 130:2).”
Topics: Parenthood
Family Gems - 6 October 2008
The Home Is the Most Significant Classroom
"Perhaps most significant of all classrooms is the classroom of the home. It is in the home that we form our attitudes, our deeply held beliefs. It is in the home that hope is fostered or destroyed. Our homes are the laboratories of our lives. What we do there determines the course of our lives when we leave home. Dr. Stuart E. Rosenberg wrote in his book The Road to Confidence, 'Despite all new inventions and modern designs, fads and fetishes, no one has yet invented, or will ever invent, a satisfying substitute for one's own family.' "
Topics: Parenthood, Family
Family Gems - 22 September 2008
Instruction in the Home
"The final desire of the Prophet Joseph Smith was to build a community of spiritual Saints. This begins in the home. The most important instruction our children will ever receive will be that which parents give to them in their own home, if parents diligently teach their children the way our Father in Heaven would like them to follow. One instruction our leaders have given us is to hold regular family home evenings where we can meet together weekly, learn gospel principles, and build family unity. Here we can counsel together, read the scriptures, pray together, and play together. Our greatest goal is to become an eternal family. We build a community of Saints one family at a time."
Topics: Parenthood, Family
Family Gems - 27 June 2008
Parents Can Best Teach by Example
"President Brigham Young instructed parents by saying:
" 'If each and every one of us who are parents will reflect upon the responsibilities devolving upon us, we shall come to the conclusion that we should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do. We should set them an example that we wish them to imitate.' (Journal of Discourses, 14:192.)
"If we are to instill faith in our children, they must see us demonstrate our faith in their young lives. They must see us on our knees daily, asking the Lord for His blessings and expressing our gratitude unto Him. They need to see us using our priesthood to administer to those in need, and to bless our children. They need to see us reverently worshiping in our sacrament meetings. They need to see us cheerfully and willingly giving of our time and talents to the building of the Lord's kingdom here on earth. They need to see us proving our faith by the payment of our tithes and offerings to Him. They need to see us diligently studying and discussing the scriptures to increase our faith and understanding."
Topics: Example, Parenthood, Teaching
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