23 November 2009

Family Home Evening Strengthens

“When I hear of a family breaking up, I question if family home evening and family prayers have been regularly held in that home. Surely, the most important ingredient in producing happiness at home for members of this Church is a deep religious commitment to God and His gospel. In family home evening, such commitment can be nurtured in children by the wise, mature supervision of parents. Couples can strengthen and sustain each other in living and understanding gospel principles.”

James E. Faust, “Enriching Our Lives through Family Home Evening,” Ensign, June 2003, 3–4

Topics: Family Home Evening

20 November 2009

Weekly Family Home Evening Will Strengthen

“We have a family home evening program once a week [Monday night] across the Church in which parents sit down with their children. They study the scriptures. They talk about family problems. They plan family activities and things of that kind. I don’t hesitate to say if every family in the world practiced that one thing, you’d see a very great difference in the solidarity of the families of the world.”

Gordon B. Hinckley, “Family Home Evening,” Liahona, Mar. 2003, 3

Topics: Family Home Evening

16 November 2009

Nurturing Marital Relationships

“I urge husbands and fathers of this Church to be the kind of men your wives would not want to be without. I urge the sisters of this Church to be patient, loving, and understanding with their husbands. Those who enter into marriage should be fully prepared to establish their marriage as the first priority in their lives.”

James E. Faust, “Fathers, Mothers, Marriage,” Liahona, Aug. 2004, 5

Topics: Marriage

13 November 2009

Live the Gospel Conspicuously

“Live the gospel as conspicuously as you can. Keep the covenants your children know you have made. Give priesthood blessings. And bear your testimony! Don’t just assume your children will somehow get the drift of your beliefs on their own. The prophet Nephi said near the end of his life that they had written their record of Christ and preserved their convictions regarding His gospel in order ‘to persuade our children … that our children may know … [and believe] the right way’( 2 Ne. 25:23, 26, 28; emphasis added).”

Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Prayer for the Children,” Liahona, May 2003, 86–87

Topics: Children

9 November 2009

Include Children in Solving Family Problems

“Parents need to draw the children into the problem-solving process by letting them be heard. For example, I came home at times to find that the children had not cleaned their rooms or done other things they were supposed to do. My wife had her hands full with seven children to raise. So I called the children together for a short council meeting. We talked about what needed to be done and decided on a course of action. Talking about the course of action makes all the difference. If it’s mandated or dictated, there will usually be resistance. But if parents will establish a climate conducive to openness, where every person is important and every opinion is valued, they can create a kind of spiritual synergism in the home, where the combined action or cooperation that results is greater than the sum of the individual parts.”

and Barbara Ballard, “Family Councils:

M. Russell Ballard, "A Conversation with Elder and Sister Ballard,” Liahona, June 2003, 15

Topics: Family

6 November 2009

Marital Relationships Must Be Rebuilt Everyday

“It is far more difficult to be of one heart and mind than to be physically one. This unity of heart and mind is manifest in sincere expressions of ‘I appreciate you’ and ‘I am proud of you.’ Such domestic harmony results from forgiving and forgetting, essential elements of a maturing marriage relationship. Someone has said that we ‘should keep [our] eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterward’ (Magdeleine Scudéry, in John P. Bradley and others, comps., The International Dictionary of Thoughts [1969], 472). True charity ought to begin in marriage, for it is a relationship that must be rebuilt every day.”

James E. Faust, “Fathers, Mothers, Marriage,” Liahona, Aug. 2004, 5

Topics: Marriage

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.”

Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Prayer for the Children,” Liahona, May 2003, 86

Topics: Parenthood