Marriage: An Eternal Hope

The marriage statistics for America are waning as more and more people exhibit the inability to commit to someone for life. There are many reasons this is happening, but the biggest part is the attack on the traditional family unit. In today's America being married is considered old fashioned; as is believing in God and knowing that marriage is part of an eternal unit.

For me, let me irrevocably state that being married to my sweetheart gave me the greatest nineteen years of my life. Yes, my husband had an extended illness, and yes we were very poor. But we did not let that color our marriage. Instead, we focused on finding joy where we could. It was there when we spent time with family; and it was there when we spent time with each other. Breakfast and a movie every payday was so much fun for the two of us, and no matter how poor we got, Alvin made sure we always had that date.

For the two of us, we not only loved each other immensely, we also know that having been sealed in a temple of God, that our marriage was for time and all eternity. We knew that Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, loved us and had provided a way for us to follow Him back to our heavenly home, but to also be together forever.

From the Proclamation on the Family we find incredible knowledge and promise:

THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

If Americans do not turn back from this deadly path, our nation will crumble and fall. If the family unit completely disintegrates, as liberals fondly wish to happen, we cannot save America.

As I have mentioned on this blog before, President Gordon B. Hinckley gave four things that families can do to help cement the familial relationship and strengthen those bonds. I will lay them out again, because I believe them to be that simple and that important.

President Hinckley promised that if every family did these four things that society would turn around within a generation or two. I don't know that we have that much time left before it is all lost, but we must try. We must never give up on our eternal purpose and do all we can to strengthen the family unit.

President Hinckley outlined the following:

1) Families must learn goodness together. Too often, parents are abdicating their responsibilities to the school. Because of this, children are being taught that marriage isn't necessary, that homosexuality is normal, that they are to rat their parents out if they say anything to the contrary. Parents must take back control of the teaching of morality.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson said,

“Women bring with them into the world a certain virtue, a divine gift that makes them adept at instilling such qualities as faith, courage, empathy, and refinement in relationships and in cultures. …

“Sisters, of all your associations, it is your relationship with God, your Heavenly Father, who is the source of your moral power, that you must always put first in your life. Remember that Jesus’s power came through His single-minded devotion to the will of the Father. … Strive to be that kind of disciple of the Father and the Son, and your influence will never fade.”

It is critical that parents be the only teachers of morality to their children. Never, ever, should that responsibility be abdicated. Remember, President Hinckley said that families must learn goodness together.

2) Families must work together. Why would President Hinckley suggest this would not only strengthen family bonds but also the foundation of a nation? It is really quite simple, if parents teach a good work ethic by example, it is better instilled in their children. There is no place for a sense of self-entitlement in a healthy family or society. We must learn to work for what we want, and to put in a good day's work for a good day's pay.

Orson Scott Card wrote an article for the Ensign magazine:

“Work has two values,” says President Roy Agle of the Bay City Michigan Branch. “It has a cash value, and the value of a sense of accomplishment. And the children need to learn both.”

The cash value of work is important for children to learn. If they grow up in a family where the parents provide everything they need, and if the breadwinner works outside the home, they may have no concept that somebody actually labors to earn the money.

A good work ethic is one of the most powerful things you can give to your children.

3) Families should read good books together. This is more important than anyone might think. There are those who have written articles stating that reading to your children is racist because everyone doesn't do it. There is no greater lie than this previous sentence.

Reading to your children strengthens their relationship with you. It provides a foundation for academic excellence. It also improves basic speech skills, increased communication, language mastery, increased logical thinking skills, etc.

This is a step in life you simply must give your children. If you can't afford to buy books, then the public library is a great place to find books to read to your children. My mother read to us nearly every night from James Herriot's books, such as All Creatures Great and Small. His books were hysterical and often reduced my mother to tears because she was laughing so hard. I remember some of the stories, and they were funny, but seeing my mother laugh so hard made us laugh too. I have many great memories of my mother reading to us.

4) Families must pray together. Prayer. There is no more powerful communication than that between God and man. President Ezra Taft Benson stated,

“All through my life the counsel to depend on prayer has been prized above almost any other advice I have ever received. It has become an integral part of me, an anchor, a constant source of strength and the basis of my knowledge of things divine.

“Our Heavenly Father is always near. … Thank God we can reach out and tap that unseen power, without which no man can do his best.” (Message delivered to temple workers and Church employees at São Paulo, Brazil, 20 November 1982.)

If you really stop to think, when we kneel in prayer to God, we don't end up on a phone tree, or talking to middle management or a CSR, it is you and God. When families pray together, it is a cementing bond that strengthens the family, preparing them for the day and closing it out and asking for protection through the night. As children see their parents kneel in prayer, it teaches them to be humble and to recognize that we have a loving Father in Heaven who really does care how we are feeling, our concerns, as well as our hopes and dreams.

These four things, if implemented in our daily lives, can truly make all the difference in your family, and ultimately in our nation.

Please America, do not buy into the liberal rhetoric. Fathers matter. Mothers matter. Children matter. The very essence of the continuation of the human race rests on the health of the family unit.

And lastly, Because of the liberal teachings in schools for the last twenty or so years we have people who are sorely confused about who and what they are. Part of this is because of the breakdown of the family unit, and part of the blame rests squarely on liberals and Hollywood. Let me straighten it out. Men are men. Women are women. Black people are black. White people are white. Brown people are brown. No one, and I do mean no one, should have guilt over their color. You can lie all you want, but you're still a man, a woman, black, white, brown. You can't change your DNA. You can't change your chromosomes. So get over it, recognize that God doesn't make mistakes and you are who you were born to be. Stop trying to change who you are and try to grow, be strong, and make yourself worthy of God's love.

Families matter. They matter to you, and they matter to the nation.

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