“The key to strengthening our families is having the Spirit of the Lord come into our homes. The goal of our families is to be on the strait and narrow path.”
Robert D. Hales, “Strengthening Families: Our Sacred Duty”, April 1999 General Conference
"Today I call upon members of the Church and on committed parents, grandparents, and extended family members everywhere to hold fast to this great proclamation, to make it a banner not unlike General Moroni’s 'title of liberty,' and to commit ourselves to live by its precepts. As we are all part of a family, the proclamation applies to everyone."
M. Russell Ballard, “What Matters Most Is What Lasts The Longest”, October 2005 General Conference
"We encourage each of you to follow the counsel of our prophet. In all the family units throughout the Church, evaluate again the progress you are making in holding regular family home evenings. The application of this program will be a shield and a protection to you against the evils of our time and will bring you, individually and collectively, greater and abundant joy now and in the eternities hereafter."
L. Tom Perry, “Therefore I Was Taught”, April 1994 General Conference
"The ultimate purpose of every teaching, every activity in the Church is that parents and their children are happy at home, sealed in an eternal marriage, and linked to their generations.
The ultimate purpose of the adversary, who has 'great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time,' is to disrupt, disturb, and destroy the home and the family. Like a ship without a rudder, without a compass, we drift from the family values which have anchored us in the past. Now we are caught in a current so strong that unless we correct our course, civilization as we know it will surely be wrecked to pieces."
Boyd K. Packer, “The Father And The Family”, April 1994 General Conference
"The family relationships we have here on this earth are important, but they are much more important for their effect on our families for generations in mortality and throughout all eternity."
Robert D. Hales, “The Eternal Family”, April 1996 General Conference
"Throughout the world, the family is increasingly under attack. If families fail, many of our political, economic, and social systems will also fail. And if families fail, their glorious eternal potential cannot be realized.
Our Heavenly Father wants husbands and wives to be faithful to each other and to esteem and treat their children as an heritage from the Lord. In such a family we study the scriptures and pray together. And we fix our focus on the temple. There we receive the highest blessings that God has in store for His faithful children."
Russell M. Nelson, “Salvation and Exaltation”, April 2008 General Conference
"It is in the home that the family learns and applies gospel principles. Great love is necessary in order to teach and guide a family. Loving fathers and mothers will teach their children to worship God in their home. When a worshipping spirit permeates the home, that spirit is extended into the life of each family member. This will prepare them to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to be able to return to God’s presence and stay together as a family for all eternity."
Claudio R.M. Costa, “Don’t Leave For Tomorrow What You Can Do Today”, October 2007 General Conference
"Faithful attendance at Church, together with careful attention to the needs of the family, is a near-perfect combination. In Church we are taught the Great Plan of Happiness. At home we apply what we have learned. Every call, every service in the Church brings experience and valuable insights which carry over into family life.
Would our perspective be more clear if we could, for a moment, look upon parenthood as a calling in the Church. Actually, it is so much more than that; but if we could look at it that way for a moment, we could reach a better balance in the way we schedule families."
Boyd K. Packer, “Parents In Zion”, October 1998 General Conference
"All families need strengthening, from the ideal to the most troubled. That strengthening can come from you. In fact, in some families you may be the only source of spiritual strength. The Lord is depending on you to bring the blessings of the gospel to your family.
It is important to establish patterns of righteousness in your own life, which will enable you to set a good example for your family, whatever form your family may take.
The example of your righteous life will strengthen your family. President Hinckley gave the young women 'a simple four-point program' in the general Young Women meeting last spring that will not only 'assure your happiness' but will bless your family as well. He counseled each of us to “(1) pray, (2) study, (3) pay your tithing, and (4) attend your meetings' (“Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2007, 115)."
Mary N. Cook, “Strengthen Home And Family”, October 2007 General Conference
"We have programs and activities in both the family and the Church. Each is so interrelated that service to one is service to the other. When children see their parents faithfully perform Church callings, it strengthens theirfamily relationships. When families are strong, the Church is strong. The two run in parallel. Each is important and necessary, and each must be conducted with careful concern for the other. Church programs and activities should not be so all-encompassing that families cannot have everyone present for family time. And family activities should not be scheduled in conflict with sacrament meeting or other vital Church meetings."
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “Priesthood Authority in the Family and the Church”, Nov. 2005 Liahona
Position Statement:
The family is the most basic unit of society in our world and in heaven. Prophets have warned that the disintegration of and the turning away from the family that is so prevalent in society today will bring great consequences. President David O. McKay gave us this stark reminder when he said “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.” (Quoted from J. E. McCullough, Home: The Savior of Civilization [1924], 42; Conference Report, Apr. 1935, 116.) The Lord has sent us to earth in families that we may learn from a mother and a father the things that we need to know in order to return back to Him. In the home children ought to be nurtured and an atmosphere of love fostered where all can feel welcome and feel relieved from the cares and stresses of the world. It is up to each of us to create just such an environment wherever we may live, whatever our marital or family status may be. In the end no righteous desire will be withheld from the faithful, therefore we must live worthy of them at all times. Our families ought to be viewed as the blessing that they are and we should seek to improve them always, starting with ourselves.
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