Family

I am so grateful for inspired leaders who care so much about our families.  There is so much information on this topic it is almost overwhelming.  That being said there are a few things that you will find across the board.  Families are important, they are central to the Lord's plan.  Parents are to be the teachers of righteous living.  Children will learn what you live.  These three things excite and scare me all at once.  I have a lot of work to do.  I hope to set a better example for my children.  I want to be the home that they feel comfortable bringing their friends over to.  I hope that anyone who enters will feel a sweet spirit there.

1. "When [the Savior] is the center of your home, there is a peace and serenity.  There is a spirit of Assurance that pervades the home, and is felt by all who dwell there."

Scott, Elder Richard G. "For Peace at Home."Ensign May 2013: 29.

2. "...Daily personal and family prayer, daily personal and family scripture study, and weekly family home evening are the essential, weight-bearing beams in the construction of a Christ-centered home."
Scott, Elder Richard G. "For Peace at Home."Ensign May 2013: 29.


3. "One of the greatest blessings we can offer to the world is the power of a Christ-centered home where the gospel is taught, covenants are kept, and love abounds."
Scott, Elder Richard G. "For Peace at Home."Ensign May 2013: 29.

4. "Become friends with your children's friends.  Be a worthy example to them."  
Scott, Elder Richard G. "For Peace at Home."Ensign May 2013: 29.

5. "When we follow the prophets’ counsel to hold family home evening, family prayer, and family scripture study, our homes become an incubator for our children’s spiritual growth. There we teach them the gospel, bear our testimonies, express our love, and listen as they share their feelings and experiences. By our righteous choices and actions, we liberate them from darkness by increasing their ability to walk in the light."
Hales, Elder Robert D. "Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life." Ensign Nov. 2010: 24.

6. "So if you are trying to do the best you can—if, for example, you keep trying to hold family home evening in spite of the bedlam that sometimes reigns in a houseful of little bedlamites— then give yourself high marks."
Holland, Jeffrey R. "An Ensign to the Nations" 

7. "We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.”
First Presidency (Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, James E. Faust) Ensign, June 1999, 80


8. "The consummate power of the priesthood has been given to protect the home and its inhabitants. The father has the authority and responsibility to teach his children and to bless and to provide for them the ordinances of the gospel and every other priesthood protection necessary. He is to demonstrate love and fidelity and honor to the mother so that their children can see that love." 
Boyd K. Packer, These Things I Know, General Conference, April 2013.

9. "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.”
Thomas S. Monson, Dedication Day, Ensign, Nov. 2000, 65.


10. "The foundation of kindness and civility begins in our home. It is not surprising that our public discourse has declined in equal measure with the breakdown of the family.” 

Elder Quentin L. Cook, "Can Ye Feel So Now?" Ensign March 2013, p 9.