Raising Children

“In my opinion, the teaching, rearing, and training of children requires more intelligence, intuitive understanding, humility, strength, wisdom, spirituality, perseverance, and hard work than any other challenge we might have in life.”

James E. Faust, “The Greatest Challenge in the World—Good Parenting,” Ensign, Nov. 1990, 33. 

Sustaining Our Leaders

“You will all abide the pledge you have given to the Lord and to one another by the uplifted hand, that you all mean to uphold and sustain these officers in all these various organizations, that . . . you will do everything you can to help them, to benefit them, bless them, and encourage them in the good work in which they are engaged.”

President Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918), Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith (1998), 218-19. 

The Angels Cannot Be Restrained

On April 28, 1842, the Prophet Joseph Smith said to the sisters in Relief Society: “You are now placed in a situation in which you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in [you]. . . . If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.”

Joseph Smith, in History of the Church, 4:605.

When God Speaks

“Much of what the Lord reveals to His prophets is intended to prevent sorrow for us as individuals and as societies. When God speaks, He does so to teach, inspire, refine, and warn His children. When individuals and societies ignore their Heavenly Father’s instructions, they do so at the risk or trial, torment, and toil.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Why Do We Need Prophets?” Ensign, Mar 2012, p 4. 

Assignments and Fore-ordination

President Spencer W. Kimball taught: "Before we came here, faithful women were given certain assignments while faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood tasks. While we do not now remember the particulars, this does not alter the glorious reality of what we once agreed to. You are accountable for those things which long ago were expected of you just as are those we sustain as prophets and apostles!"

"The Role of Righteous Women," Ensign, Nov. 1979, 102.

Suggestions for Parents

“President Ezra Taft Benson has offered [the following] suggestions for [parents]….

1.       Take time to always be at the crossroads in the lives of your children, whether they be six or sixteen.

2.       Take time to be a real friend to your children.

3.       Take time to read to your children.

4.       Take time to pray with your children.

5.       Take time to have a meaningful weekly home evening.

6.       Take time to be together at mealtimes as often as possible.

7.       Take time daily to read the scripture together as a family.

8.       Take time to do things together as a family.

9.       Take time to teach your children.

1.   Take time to truly love your children.

A Calling to Minister

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, "Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purposed in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was."

(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 365.)