The Family: Under Attack

I have decided that the two best ways to learn how to practice the law of consecration are marriage and family experience. Is it any wonder that both are under attack so fiercely?

Today the most watched talk on BYU Broadcasting was the one given by Julie Beck at the BYU Women’s conference, May 1, 2009. Her talk was called “Nourishing and Protecting Home and Family.”

In her talk she emphasized the doctrine of the family as summarized so beautifully in the Proclamation on the Family. She also explained the theology of the family, or as it is more commonly referred to, the great plan of salvation or happiness. The three pillars of this theology are:

1) The Creation- of this beautiful earth for families.

2) The Fall- as a means for families to grow and increase.

3) The Atonement- as an event that will tie families together forever.

Elder Robert D. Hales explained, “In the beginning, Adam and Eve were married for time and all eternity by the Lord. The organization of the family existed in the heavens before the world was formed and was historically started with Adam and Eve on the earth, as recorded in Genesis. The family will exist eternally.”

Both Adam and Eve had leadership roles in their family as given to them in their assignments. They got their responsibilities by virtue of that celestial marriage and sealing.

Ezra Taft Benson taught that this was the order of the priesthood. He said, “This order is otherwise described in modern revelation as an order of family government. When a man and a women enter into a covenant with God, just as did Adam and Eve, to be sealed for eternity, to have posterity, and to do the will and work of God throughout mortality. This order of the priesthood has been on the earth since the beginning and it is the only means by which we can see the face of God and live.”

Sister Beck explained that marriage is an order of the priesthood, which prepares us for the blessing of Eternal life.

Elder David A. Bednar has taught us two important reasons why marriage is essential. “Reason one, is because the natures of male and female spirits complete and perfect each other, and therefore men and women are intended to progress together toward exaltation. And reason two, by divine design, both man and woman are needed to bring children into mortality and to provide the best setting for the rearing and nurturing of children.”

Elder Boyd K, Packer said, “The great plan of happiness, revealed to prophets, is a plan for a happy family. It is the love story between husband and wife, parents and children, that renews itself through the ages. Nothing is more important to the Church, and to civilization, than the family.”

Sister Beck very beautifully explained that families are about “us” and “we”, while the world preaches about “I” and “Me”. It is apparent to me that Satan wishes to dissuade us from living the Celestial law of consecration. “Anti-Christ teachings and principles are always Anti-family and that Anti-family teachings and policies are also Anti-Christ.” I believe that Satan wants us to be unwilling to submit and to be proud and unteachable. Families are the place that we learn how to be consecrated to the Lord, by practice daily, in lessons of unselfish behavior and charity to others. It is no wonder the family is under attack, the importance of the lessons learned in the family are Eternal.

Sister Beck then shared a statement from a talk given in 1980 by Spencer W. Kimball, called “Families Can Be Eternal”.

“There are those who would define the family in such a nontraditional way that they would define it out of existence.

We of all people, brothers and sisters, should not be taken in by the specious arguments that the family unit is somehow tied to a particular phase of development a mortal society is going through. We are free to resist those moves which downplay the significance of the family and which play up the significance of selfish individualism. We know the family to be eternal. We know that when things go wrong in the family, things go wrong in every other institution in society.

Furthermore, 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.”

This was such a testimony for me of how a prophet of God surely saw our day. As a watchman on the tower, he warned us of the attack that would come upon this Eternal unit. Our salvation and exaltation depends on how we view the doctrine of the family.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to this amazing talk on the doctrine of the family, please take the time to do it.

Consecration: Part of A Mother's Love

In the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament we learn of a beautiful story about mothers. King Solomon, who had just received the gift of an understanding heart, has a case brought before him of two mothers arguing over the possession of one single child. The story is as follows:

1 Kings 3:16 ¶ Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.

17 And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

18 And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

19 And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

20 And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

21 And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.

22 And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.

23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.

25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

26 Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.

Such is the beautiful quality of a mother in Zion. She is willing to consecrate all she has been given for the sake of her children.

On another level, perhaps this division of the “child” could be seen as the impending doom that awaited the children of Israel with the division of the kingdom. Certainly the gift of a child would be the only way to save these wayward children of the Lord as well. Oh, but that is another thing to ponder all together, call me crazy, I simply loved this illustration of the qualities of sacrifice, love, and consecration found in a mother. By the way, try not to get hung up on the fact that these women were harlots....

I like to believe this mother, this woman, was simply one of the "Mothers who know" that Sister Julie Beck referenced in her much debated conference talk. Please take time to read it as Mother's Day approaches. It is a gift you can give to yourself as a mother.