Raising Children: This is where I grew the most I think. When I first started having children I thought this will be easy. Turns out when I pictured myself having kids I didn’t think about the constant bombardment of questions, sleepless nights, or the many tantrums that go with a small child. As I read these talks I was happy to hear some of the problems that I am facing right now have also happened to the prophets and apostles. This is the hardest job and the most rewarding at the same time. There are no breaks, days off, or even sick days. Some days it seems like you have gotten nothing done but someday I will look back at this and miss these moments. I am learning to not be so uptight about the house being so clean or my kids looking perfect but to take time out to just enjoy them as they are and maybe even get a little messy myself. These are the moments that they are really going to remember.
“If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly. . . Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows.”
President Thomas S. Monson, Finding Joy in the Journey, October 2008 General Conference
President Thomas S. Monson, Finding Joy in the Journey, October 2008 General Conference
"Parents, the days are long past when regular, active participation in Church meetings and programs, though essential, can fulfill your sacred responsibility to teach your children to live moral, righteous lives and walk uprightly before the Lord. With President Monson’s announcement this morning, it is essential that this be faithfully accomplished in homes which are places of refuge where kindness, forgiveness, truth, and righteousness prevail. Parents must have the courage to filter or monitor Internet access, television, movies, and music. Parents must have the courage to say no, defend truth, and bear powerful testimony. Your children need to know that you have faith in the Savior, love your Heavenly Father, and sustain the leaders of the Church. Spiritual maturity must flourish in our homes. My hope is that no one will leave this conference without understanding that the moral issues of our day must be addressed in the family. Bishops and priesthood and auxiliary leaders need to support families and make sure that spiritual principles are taught. Home and visiting teachers can assist, especially with children of single parents."
Quentin L. Cook, Can Ye Feel So Now?, October 2012 General Conference.
Quentin L. Cook, Can Ye Feel So Now?, October 2012 General Conference.
"Much modern despair and violence grow out of unhealthy attitudes towards any authority, including that in families. Thirty-five years ago, a BBC commentator insightfully worried “that we are turning out adults who have an even less clear and consistent attitude towards authority than we have ourselves, and who will be even less capable than their parents in raising children with a sane attitude towards authority, and so an insidious avalanche may be developing, gathering a ghastly momentum from generation to generation.”
Neal A. Maxwell, Take Especial Care of Your Family, April 1994 General Conference
Neal A. Maxwell, Take Especial Care of Your Family, April 1994 General Conference
"Parents simply cannot flirt with skepticism or cynicism, then be surprised when their children expand that flirtation into full-blown romance. If in matters of faith and belief children are at risk of being swept downstream by this intellectual current or that cultural rapid, we as their parents must be more certain than ever to hold to anchored, unmistakable moorings clearly recognizable to those of our own household. It won’t help anyone if we go over the edge with them, explaining through the roar of the falls all the way down that we really did know the Church was true and that the keys of the priesthood really were lodged there but we just didn't want to stifle anyone’s freedom to think otherwise. No, we can hardly expect the children to get to shore safely if the parents don’t seem to know where to anchor their own boat. Isaiah once used a variation on such imagery when he said of unbelievers, “[Their] tacklings are loosed; they could not … strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail.”
Jeffery R. Holland, A Prayer for the Children, Ensign May 2003
Jeffery R. Holland, A Prayer for the Children, Ensign May 2003
"Not long ago Sister Holland and I met a fine young man who came in contact with us after he had been roaming around through the occult and sorting through a variety of Eastern religions, all in an attempt to find religious faith. His father, he admitted, believed in nothing whatsoever. But his grandfather, he said, was actually a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “But he didn't do much with it,” the young man said. “He was always pretty cynical about the Church.” From a grandfather who is cynical to a son who is agnostic to a grandson who is now looking desperately for what God had already once given his family! What a classic example of the warning Elder Richard L. Evans once gave.
Said he: “Sometimes some parents mistakenly feel that they can relax a little as to conduct and conformity or take perhaps a so called liberal view of basic and fundamental things—thinking that a little laxness or indulgence won’t matter—or they may fail to teach or to attend Church, or may voice critical views. Some parents … seem to feel that they can ease up a little on the fundamentals without affecting their family or their family’s future. But,” he observed, “if a parent goes a little off course, the children are likely to exceed the parent’s example.”
Jeffery R. Holland, A Prayer for the Children, Ensign May 2003
Said he: “Sometimes some parents mistakenly feel that they can relax a little as to conduct and conformity or take perhaps a so called liberal view of basic and fundamental things—thinking that a little laxness or indulgence won’t matter—or they may fail to teach or to attend Church, or may voice critical views. Some parents … seem to feel that they can ease up a little on the fundamentals without affecting their family or their family’s future. But,” he observed, “if a parent goes a little off course, the children are likely to exceed the parent’s example.”
Jeffery R. Holland, A Prayer for the Children, Ensign May 2003
"Parents today wonder if there is a safe place to raise children. There is a safe place. It is in a gospel-centered home. We focus on the family in the Church, and we counsel parents everywhere to raise their children in righteousness."
Boyd K. Packer, The Key to Spiritual Protection, General Conference October 2013
Boyd K. Packer, The Key to Spiritual Protection, General Conference October 2013
"Father Lehi once described himself as a “trembling parent” (2 Ne. 1:14). There are trembling parents and grandparents today! Some of today’s families already exist in a worse wilderness than did Father Lehi’s. Healthy, traditional families are becoming an endangered species! Perhaps, one day, families may even rank with the threatened spotted owl in effective attention given!
As parenting declines, the need for policing increases. There will always be a shortage of police if there is a shortage of effective parents! Likewise, there will not be enough prisons if there are not enough good homes."
Neal A. Maxwell, Take Especial Care of Your Family, April 1994 General Conference
As parenting declines, the need for policing increases. There will always be a shortage of police if there is a shortage of effective parents! Likewise, there will not be enough prisons if there are not enough good homes."
Neal A. Maxwell, Take Especial Care of Your Family, April 1994 General Conference
"Troubled as many homes may be in our society, we cannot abandon the home as the primary teacher of moral values. Nowhere else will moral values be taught so effectively. As Brigham Young counseled, we must teach children “by faith rather than by the rod, leading them kindly by good example into all truth and holiness” (Journal of Discourses, 12:174)."
James E. Faust, Will I Be Happy, April 1987 General Conference
James E. Faust, Will I Be Happy, April 1987 General Conference
"One of a parent’s most important responsibilities is to teach. As declared in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” “parents have a sacred duty … to teach [their children—sons and daughters] to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.”
Robert D. Hales, Our Parental Duty to God and to the Rising Generation, August 2010 Ensign
Robert D. Hales, Our Parental Duty to God and to the Rising Generation, August 2010 Ensign
"While few human challenges are greater than that of being good parents, few opportunities offer greater potential for joy. Surely no more important work is to be done in this world than preparing our children to be God-fearing, happy, honorable, and productive. Parents will find no more fulfilling happiness than to have their children honor them and their teachings. It is the glory of parenthood."
James E. Faust, The Greatest Challenges in The World - Good Parenting, November 1990 Ensign
James E. Faust, The Greatest Challenges in The World - Good Parenting, November 1990 Ensign