Marriage and Motherhood Quotes

INSPIRATION an ORIGINS FOR MY BLOG TITLE:
We'll Ascend Together - Linda K. Burton
Strengthening Families: Our Sacred Duty - Robert D. Hales

FROM ACADEMIC & PERSONAL READING: WEEK 2
"Many of the social restraints which in the past have helped to reinforce and to shore up the family are dissolving and disappearing. The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us." (President Spencer W. Kimball, "Families Can Be Eternal," Ensign, Nov 1980, 4.)

"Oh, brothers and sisters, families can be forever! Do not let the lures of the moment draw you away from them! Divinity, eternity, and family—they go together, hand in hand, and so must we!"  (President Spencer W. Kimball, "Families Can Be Eternal," Ensign, Nov 1980, 4.)

"Under the law of the Lord, a marriage, like a human life, is a precious, living thing. If our bodies are sick, we seek to heal them. We do not give up. While there is any prospect of life, we seek healing again and again. The same should be true of our marriages, and if we seek Him, the Lord will help us and heal us." (Dallin H. Oaks, Divorce, April 2007 General Conference.)

"Spouses should do all within their power to preserve their marriages. ...they should be best friends, kind and considerate, sensitive to each other’s needs, always seeking to make each other happy. They should be partners in family finances, working together to regulate their desires for temporal things." (Dallin H. Oaks, Divorce, April 2007 General Conference.)

"If you wish to marry well, inquire well. Associations through “hanging out” or exchanging information on the Internet are not a sufficient basis for marriage. There should be dating, followed by careful and thoughtful and thorough courtship. There should be ample opportunities to experience the prospective spouse’s behavior in a variety of circumstances. Fiancés should learn everything they can about the families with whom they will soon be joined in marriage. In all of this, we should realize that a good marriage does not require a perfect man or a perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to strive together toward perfection." (Dallin H. Oaks, Divorce, April 2007 General Conference.)

"I strongly urge you and those who advise you, to face up to the reality that, for most marriage problems, the remedy is not divorce, but repentance. Often the cause is not incompatibility, but selfishness. The first step is not separation, but reformation. ...If you are already descending into the low state of marriage-in-name-only, please join hands, kneel together, and prayerfully plead for the help and the healing power of the ATonement. Your humble and united pleadings will bring you close to the Lord and to each other and will help you in the hard climb back to marital harmony."  (Dallin H. Oaks, Divorce, April 2007 General Conference.)

“Two individuals approaching the marriage altar must realize that to attain the happy marriage which they hope for they must know that marriage … means sacrifice, sharing, and even a reduction of some personal liberties. It means long, hard economizing. It means children who bring with them financial burdens, service burdens, care and worry burdens; but also it means the deepest and sweetest emotions of all.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball (2006), 194.)

"In a former era, the Lord sent a flood to destroy unworthy lineages. In this generation, it is my faith that he has sent numerous choice individuals to help purify them." (Carlfred Broderick, professor of sociology, University of Southern California, Ensign, May 1987, Questions and Answers.)

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"In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a theology of the family that is based on the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement. The Creation of the earth provided a place where families could live. God created a man and a woman who were the two essential halves of a family. It was part of Heavenly Father’s plan that Adam and Eve be sealed and form an eternal family.

"The Fall provided a way for the family to grow. Adam and Eve were family leaders who chose to have a mortal experience. The Fall made it possible for them to have sons and daughters.

"The Atonement allows for the family to be sealed together eternally. It allows for families to have eternal growth and perfection. The plan of happiness, also called the plan of salvation, was a plan created for families. The rising generation need to understand that the main pillars of our theology are centered in the family."(Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, from a broadcast address given to seminary and institute of religion teachers on August 4, 2009.)

"The family is central to the Creator’s plan. Without the family, there is no plan; there is no reason for mortal life." (Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, from a broadcast address given to seminary and institute of religion teachers on August 4, 2009.)

"The rising generation need to understand that the command to “multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28; Moses 2:28) remains in force. Bearing children is a faith-based work. ... Motherhood and fatherhood are eternal roles. Each carries the responsibility for either the male or the female half of the plan. Youth is the time to prepare for those eternal roles and responsibilities." (Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, from a broadcast address given to seminary and institute of religion teachers on August 4, 2009.)

"Live in your home so that you’re brilliant in the basics, so that you’re intentional about your roles and responsibilities in the family. Think in terms of precision not perfection. If you have your goals and you are precise in how you go about them in your homes, youth will learn from you." (Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, from a broadcast address given to seminary and institute of religion teachers on August 4, 2009.)

"This generation will be called upon to defend the doctrine of the family as never before. If they don’t know the doctrine, they can’t defend it." (Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, from a broadcast address given to seminary and institute of religion teachers on August 4, 2009.)

“It is an act of extreme selfishness for a married couple to refuse to have children when they are able to do so.” (Spencer W. Kimball, “Fortify Your Homes against Evil,” Ensign, May 1979, 6.)

“This order … of family government where a man and woman enter into a covenant with God—just as did Adam and Eve—to be sealed for eternity, to have posterity … is the only means by which we can one day see the face of God and live.” (Ezra Taft Benson, “What I Hope You Will Teach Your Children about the Temple,” Ensign, Aug. 1985, 6.)

"For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory." (D&C 88:22)

“The family is not an accident of mortality. It existed as an organizational unit in the heavens before the world was formed; historically, it started on earth with Adam and Eve, as recorded in Genesis. Adam and Eve were married and sealed for time and all eternity by the Lord, and as a result, their family will exist eternally.” (Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” in Dawn Hall Anderson, ed., Clothed with Charity: Talks from the 1996 Women’s Conference (1997), 134.)


"A home with a loving and loyal husband and wife is the supreme setting in which children can be reared in love and righteousness and in which the spiritual and physical needs of children can be met. Just as the unique characteristics of both males and females contribute to the completeness of a marriage relationship, so those same characteristics are vital to the rearing, nurturing, and teaching of children." (David A. Bednar, Marriage is Essential to His Eternal Plan, Ensign, February 2006.)

"As men and women, as husbands and wives,...one of our paramount responsibilities is to help young men and women learn about and prepare for righteous marriage through our personal example. As young women and men observe worthiness, loyalty, sacrifice, and the honoring of covenants in our marriages, then those youth will seek to emulate the same principles in their courting and marriage relationships. As young people notice that we have made the comfort and convenience of our eternal companion our highest priority, then they will become less self-centered and more able to give, to serve, and to create an equal and enduring companionship. As young women and men perceive mutual respect, affection, trust, and love between a husband and a wife, then they will strive to cultivate the same characteristics in their lives. Our children...will learn the most from what we do and what we are—even if they remember relatively little of what we say." (David A. Bednar, Marriage is Essential to His Eternal Plan, Ensign, February 2006.)

"The sweet and simple doctrine of the plan of happiness provides precious eternal perspective and helps us understand the importance of eternal marriage. We have been blessed with all of the spiritual resources we need [to learn about, to teach, to strengthen, and to defend righteous marriage.] We have the fulness of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. We have the Holy Ghost and revelation. We have saving ordinances, covenants, and temples. We have priesthood and prophets. We have the holy scriptures and the power of the word of God. And we have The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (David A. Bednar, Marriage is Essential to His Eternal Plan, Ensign, February 2006.)

“It was Joseph Smith who taught me how to prize the endearing relationships of father and mother, husband and wife; of brother and sister, son and daughter.

“It was from him that I learned that the wife of my bosom might be secured to me for time and all eternity; and that the refined sympathies and affections which endeared us to each other emanated from the fountain of divine eternal love. …

“I had loved before, but I knew not why. But now I loved—with a pureness—an intensity of elevated, exalted feeling, which would lift my soul from the transitory things of this groveling sphere and expand it as the ocean. … In short, I could now love with the spirit and with the understanding also.


“Yet, at that time, my dearly beloved brother, Joseph Smith, had … merely lifted a corner of the veil and given me a single glance into eternity.” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (1938), 297–98.)

Marriage in the Lord's Way, Part One - Cree-L Kofford
Marriage in the Lord's Way, Part Two - Cree-L Kofford

FROM ACADEMIC & PERSONAL READING: WEEK 3