Opening Hymn #300
This lesson was a huge one and could not be covered in 45 minutes. Please go to HERE and read the whole chapter. President Joseph Fielding Smith declared, “The family is the most important organization in time or in eternity.” He clearly set this in his own home. The first part of the chapter discusses what kind of family man President Smith was along with examples from his wife, children, and grandchildren taken from the text.
Then...Sister Cannon presented three drawings on the board: a helmet, sword, and shield.
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| See Scripture John 11:35 |
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| See Luke 17:32 |
The sword represents on how we need to slay the worldly things out of homes. Let it all go so we can lift those around us. Fight the battles as they come. However, whenever I heard the words "let it go" all I could think of is the song from "Frozen". My mind broke into song. Enjoy the clip. I apologize for the interruption.
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| Nephi 2:15 |
President Smith believed:
1. The family is the most important organization in time or in eternity.
In fact, the Church organization really exists to assist the family and its members in reaching exaltation.
As the forces of evil attack the individual by tearing away at his family roots, it becomes critical for Latter-day Saint parents to maintain and strengthen the family. The gospel is family centered; it must be lived in the family. It is here we receive our greatest and most important training as we seek to create for ourselves eternal family units patterned after the family of God our Father.
2. The Lord instituted the family to endure eternally.
In the temple of the Lord, a couple goes to be sealed or married for time and all eternity. Children born in that union will be the children of that father and mother not only in mortal life but in all eternity, and they become members of the family of God in heaven and on earth, as spoken of by Paul [see Ephesians 3:14–15], and that family order should never be broken. … …
Those children born to them have a right to the companionship of father and mother, and father and mother are under obligations before their Eternal Father to be true to each other and raise those children in light and truth, that they may in the eternities to come, be one—a family within the great family of God.
We should remember, as Latter-day Saints, that outside of the celestial kingdom, there is no family organization [after death]. That organization is reserved for those who are willing to abide in every covenant and every obligation which we are called upon to receive while we sojourn here in this mortal life.
3. We strengthen and preserve our families as we spend time together, love each other, and live the gospel together.
Do you spend as much time making your family and home successful as you do in pursuing social and professional success? Are you devoting your best creative energy to the most important unit in society—the family? Or is your relationship with your family merely a routine, unrewarding part of life? Parent and child must be willing to put family responsibilities first in order to achieve family exaltation?
In D & C 88:119, it says "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a bhouse, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;"
You can take this scripture into a different meaning and think about it as your internal house or soul. When your mind or soul is renewed by praying, fasting, having faith, and so forth, then it makes it easier for your "real" house to become of order. Sometimes it is hard to maintain that control in your house with little kids running around but there can be small moments that make your house heaven on Earth. :)(Funny, this is exactly what I wrote to one of my BYUI students so I thought I would add it in.)
Closing Hymn #298
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