So this will be my last post for now about marriage and families. If you look back to the beginning you’ll see we’ve taken a journey and learned everything about how to prepare for marriage all the way though how to avoid divorce and over come challenges in a marriage. I didn’t only write this blog because it was a school assignment but I wrote it because I strongly believe that families are under attack and we must stand up and defend the family or our communities, our societies and our nations will fail. If the family fails, it won’t be long until nations fall to the earth.
A short twenty years ago the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued The Family: A Proclamation to the World. If you haven’t read it, I invite you to visit this website and read it in its entirety- https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng.
I echo the words of Elder. M. Russell Ballard when he said, “I call upon members of the Church and on committed parents, grandparents, and extended family members everywhere to hold fast to this great proclamation, to make it a banner not unlike General Moroni’s “title of liberty,” and to commit ourselves to live by its precepts. As we are all part of a family, the proclamation applies to everyone.”
We each have a responsibility to establish a maintain families as the Lord would have us do. No matter what our family looks like, if it is a family of one or one hundred, we can defend the principles of The Proclamation and defend families.
How do you defend marriage and family in our day and age? Allow me to give you some ways in which you can share the joy that comes from being apart of an eternal family.
First off, I encourage you to use social media as a means to defend families. There is no need to be abrasive or degrading to others that may not share you views but you can do simple things like share talks about the importance of families. You could designate Friday’s as “Family Friday’s” and share a special memory you have from your childhood that displays the positive memories of growing up with two parents who loved each other and reared their children in righteousness. Or you can share ways once a week that you are creating memories for your own family and children.
I would invite you to share your personal testimony of families when you are involved in a conversation with someone who supports and maybe even encourages non-traditional families. If you share your thoughts and have the spirit with you, there is no need to worrying about offending your friends.
Finally, I invite you to build your own personal testimony of the sacredness of marriage and family. Study the scriptures to find patterns that the Lord has established for families. Study the words of the living prophets who are inspired to teach us the patterns and thoughts of our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ. Be willing and humble enough to change things in our own life that might be preventing you from a temple marriage or sealing. If you need to change the way you treat your spouse or children, be willing to change. Allow the Lord to work miracles for your posterity through you. Let go of pride, guilt, envy and become the husband and father or wife and mother that creates a harmonious, eternal family.
I testify that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can change. We can heal abusive patterns, we can become the kings and queens that God intends for us to be. Thank you for sharing in this journey of marriage and family with me. I wish yo the best of luck as you learn of what the Lord wants and needs you to do in your own life.
