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Doctrine of the Family

2/20/2014

1 Comment

 
I love to watch the Olympics.  All of these people that have given their lives to become perfect in something.  I was reminded of why our President Obama didn’t go to the Olympics.  One of the primary reasons is because the Russians are anti-gay and there is a legal thing against them.  He looks at it like a civil rights kind of thing.  Part of his campaign was gay rights.  I took with me a granddaughter that just turned 13 in middle school.  She said in the halls at school they have kids making out.  She thought that was horrid.  There are boys making out with boys and girls making out with girls in the hallway in middle school.  It didn’t surprise me, but made me ill. 

You go on Facebook and see the ads down the side Ellen DeGeneres is just plastered there.  That is constantly being put before them.  Then we have the new sitcoms on Prime time TV.  They are about 2 dads and a boy.  They are about different kinds of families.  That is presented in humor.  They are funny.  Then you have a lot of your children’s friends parents are divorced.  Divorce in the church is at 50%.  We have a high rate of crime, garbage and immortality going on in the world.  Now it is flaunted when girls show up to school pregnant.  Our youth because they are seeing so much of this…being gay or lesbian has become a curiosity.  Some of them in their youth if they don’t have a boy friend will try out a girl friend.  It’s an adrenalin thing. 

I think that he tries to get his attention by announcing he is gay.  He isn’t popular.  He’s kind of nerdy.  What matters is what our children are encountering, what they were living with.

Ephesians 6:12

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The scriptures have said this will be part of our time.

Julie Beck BYU Women’s Conference “Nourishing & Protecting The Family” May 2009  (YouTube)

Julie Beck “Nourishing & Protecting The Family”

“Public policies are being made everyday.  Pornography is rampant.  For those who create pornography there new target audience is young women.”

Look at youth idols.  They start out as these innocent role models.  What do they stand for?  What do we have?  You watch styles and children in sitcoms on TV they are acting roles of adults in a very young age…tight pants, low necks, skimpy bathing suits for little people. The media is very powerful, even if you don’t have it in your home. 

Parents are being portrayed as dumb and inept.  Watch commercials…they have children telling Dad’s what kind of insurance to buy on TV.  Parents are being portrayed as foolish and out of touch.  Any anti-family media is anti-Christ.  Our youth are being desensitized to being against families. 

Class member:  We teach our children these things are wrong, but they aren’t shocked or appalled.  It’s just a part of life.  They are losing that innocence. 

Korihor the Anti-Christ Alma 30:18  “Leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in wickedness, yea leading away many women.”

These kids that are finding pleasure in immodest clothing or inappropriate relationships with same sex and some of us to a degree find a ‘high’ in getting involved just a little in it.  Would you be able to watch what you watch with your Savior.  Do they walk hand in hand with the Savior?  Do we rationalize and justify the things we really want to watch?  Sometimes what we bring in is part of the desensitizing stuff.  Evaluate and see if it’s conducive of the spirit of the Lord. 

Why does that scripture say “women” in that scripture?

Families are ‘us’ centered.  The world teaches ‘I’ centered. 

When you talk to the youth they will say…I want a career.  I want to travel.  Then I want a family.  It’s good to be educated to raise children.  It’s vital.  It’s a commandment.  When the goal is to have power in a career or money in that career.

The Lord warns us way in front to prepare us.  We can go and say “I didn’t do, but I did know”. 

Spencer W. Kimball October 1980 (Conference) “Families Can Be Eternal”

“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.

Whether from inadvertence, ignorance, or other causes, the efforts governments often make (ostensibly to help the family) sometimes only hurt the family more. 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."

The Utah church said that family will be defined as a husband and wife.  With the president saying what he is saying they will lose.  Idaho’s ‘family’ law is being challenged.  Your children are going to live with that.  What we are teaching is wrong will be politically correct.  The church has said….”Changes in the civil law can not change the civil law.  His law of chastity is clear.  Legally and lawfully wedded.” Dallin H. Oaks Conference talk 2013.

Not to put our head in the sand, not to look at it and give up, but to take a stand in righteousness.  We need to do that!  The insert says ‘being involved’ in your community.  Because we are busy with life and children.  We tend to not get involved.  We need to make a righteous voice heard.  The unrighteous voices are heard very loudly.  It’s because righteous voices are being quiet.  We need to start being heard.  We need to go about it in legal and lawful ways.  We need to vote.  Campaign for them.  Help children get involved in good causes.  We need to be a voice that defends these truths and not be fearful. 

When young women come from a divorced family or the parents argue a lot they become discouraged about forming eternal families.  Their feeling is that they can not make it work.  Why do I want to get married and put myself it a position to be miserable.

Class member:  I am primary chorister in our ward.  There is a lot of contention around the song “A Family Is of God”.  They don’t have a family unit that is tradition.  Someone responded that is why it is important to teach our kids that it is possible for them to have the family that God wants.  There are some that refuse to teach a couple of the verses because they don’t agree with them.

This flack is coming from within the church.  This is why Satan is so subtle.  He wants members of the church to think in the name of protecting that we agree and accept everything.  We don’t want to make them feel bad.  We want to teach them God’s way.  His principles are sure.  They are defined and they will not change.  They have to know that ‘they’ regardless of what they come from can have those eternal families for themselves.  When we take it away from them they become victims. 

Class member:  With gay marriage there are people that say the church was against ‘blacks’ and now it is ok.  How do we talk about that?

Class member:  The church has a lot of views on the website about being gay.  It’s put very delicately. 

Class member:  It was always prophesied that the blacks would always have it. 

Class member:  You can’t control the color of your skin, but you can control your choices.

Class member:  When I have heard that people say like with polygamy how many times the church caves.  There would be more that the church will cave on. 

I think we have to realize that everyone has to do their own inventory about their selves.  The think about the primary song.  Women wearing pants to church or getting into the Priesthood session.  This problem with the song is coming from within the church.  You have to decide where you stand.  The doctrine of the gospel is true.  It is sure.  It will not be changed.  We have to decide which side of the line will we stand on. 

In the last days they will teach good as evil and evil as good.  (scriptures)

Because it is presented in such an appealing as a Christian ‘love your brother’ way they want to be Christ-like.  There are places where the line is drawn.  It won’t move.  You have to choose which side you will be on.  We need to reach out more to those children and love them more and visit them more and comfort them more.  Help them know this is where the Lord’s principle is.  You may not live in that kind of home, but you can have it.  This is a refining sifting period in the church.  Follow the prophet!

Class member:  In 1995 when the Proclamation in the Family came out it defined what marriage is.  It s such a great safety net for the church.  We have defined it and haven’t changed our stance.  We can have that to fall back on.  80% of their ward voted for President Obama.  They are leading the movement on wearing pants to church and going to Priesthood session.

Class member:  I think that’s why I’ve enjoyed this class so much.  I’ve learned is the power we have as women and what Heavenly Father has given to us as women.  Everything you are saying is true.

Class member:  I got married the year the Proclamation came out.  I thought it seemed unnecessary to me.  There was none of that stuff. 

The Lord will always warn us, but now that it is here do we heed the warning or do we get sucked into Satan’s subtle lures to change the primary song, wear pants to church, or go to Priesthood meeting.  So many people feel like they need a cause. 

How are we going to fortify our family against it?  It is up to us to defend the home and family.  I want to teach you how.

Class member:  When I was a youth we had an activity that taught this same thing.  They put us out in a field and blind folded us.  They took my best friend and scattered.  They blind folded me and I had to follow this one person and my best friend had to tempt me to go with her (like Satan). 

Dieter F Uchtdorf “Forget me Not” November 2011

“In our diligent efforts to fulfill all of the duties and obligations we take on as members of the Church, we sometimes see the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must add to our already impossibly long to-do list, as a block of time that we must somehow fit into our busy schedules. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget why.”

We are focused on what the Lord wants us to do.  Then we turn to how are we going to teach it.  What are we going to teach it and how are we going to teach it.  Both of those things are good, but he goes on to say….

Dieter F Uchtdorf “Forget me Not” November 2011

“My dear sisters, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an obligation; it is a pathway, marked by our loving Father in Heaven, leading to happiness and peace in this life and glory and inexpressible fulfillment in the life to come. The gospel is a light that penetrates mortality and illuminates the way before us.”

We teach this not as a to-do list, but as the gospel that illuminates their lives.  We hang up teaching from the negative point of view….”We don’t believe in homosexuality, divorce….” They all become rules and they can be swayed by a peer group to just try it out.  As they become more and more desensitized they get led down that path.  Don’t teach it as a series of rules.  Teach the Lord’s way as a pathway to exaltation. 

We need to teach “The Doctrine of the Family”.  If you remember in your seminary days there are 3 pillars of the gospel of Jesus Christ…Creation, Fall, Atonement.  Everything else rests on that. 

(1st pillar) Creation.  Why as this earth created?  For us to have a body, to be put in a family, to have joy.  The first family was Adam and Eve.  The first marriage was set by example as a man and a woman as an eternal marriage was in the Garden of Eden.  We were untied in heaven with a Father and Mother.  We came to earth as spirit sons and daughters of our father.  We come to earth.  The purpose of the earth was to be united in eternal marriage. 

(2nd pillar) At the fall…Adam and Eve were given a choice.  Don’t partake of the fruit if you want to remain in the state you are in the garden.  If you partake then you will experience death and you will experience joy and sorrow and you will be cast out.  You will also have increase.  It wasn’t a matter of sinning.  It was a matter of choice.  It was agency.  In order to have a choice you have to have 2 oppositions.  As they were cast out they were given the blessing to have children.  The purpose for this world’s creation to have families, have children, have them eternally. 

(3rd pillar) Atonement…allowed families to be sealed for eternity as families.  The reason for getting married as families in the temple is because that is the eternal plan of our family in heaven.  If they come to a point where they have a testimony of that these things are not a temptation because the truth is founded in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Family is not part of the gospel.  It IS the gospel.  It is the whole purpose in being here on earth. 

Satan cannot have a body or a family.  Satan is alive and well and he wants to destroy this principle.  Will some of your children be led astray?  Probably.  Most of us don’t get through this life unscathed.  Our heart will be wrenched out of us as Satan lays hold on some of them that we love.  Does that mean we give in?  Does that mean that because I don’t want to hurt your feelings I will give in?  That means I will love you regardless.  Hopefully my love can give you enough strength to grow and see the truth. 

The Lord’s plan will never change.  It was tested in Sodom & Gomorrah, Noah, Dark Ages…his plan is sure when it comes to family.  It will not change. Our responsibility is to teach the doctrine on the family. 

I suggest you read and study in depth the Proclamation.  How often have we taught those principles with exactness.  They need to know this is the doctrine of salvation.  This is the plan of salvation.  This is the gospel

Class member:  I was home sick and my 6 year old.  The Spirit woke me up and I heard my son say, “Did you know that some kids have 2 mom’s?”  We would each have our own poster, highlighted and marked.  This was inspiration for our family.  We are not to teach the other ways.  We are to teach the doctrine.  They were talking had he said our family has 3 Mom’s.  Mom, her Mom, and Dad’s Mom.  Count the couples by 2’s. 

Julie Beck BYU Women’s Conference “Nourishing & Protecting The Family” May 2009  (YouTube)

Julie Beck “Nourishing & Protecting The Family”  … “We as sisters and parents have to fight.  We can’t sit down and say it’s awful out there.  We have to fight for our homes.  We have to get up and do something.  We have to teach with intention.”

The intention is that we need to teach the 3 pillars of the gospel.  We need to teach it as doctrine.  In that there is testimony.  In that the Spirit confirms.  Focus on teaching true doctrine. 

She emphasizes FHE.  “A letter was sent out that Monday nights were for FHE….other interruptions should not get in the way.  We should use the time on Sunday to teach our children.  But Monday nights are reserved for FHE and we should be proactive in defending that time.  Why shouldn’t we want Monday in addition to Sunday….’the establishment of FHE the sounding of an alarm to all parents to prepare and strengthen them again the challenges we now face.”

I challenge you take upon yourself the challenge to memorize the Proclamation.  If you do that your life will never be the same.  You will see things more clearly in relationship to the family.  You will invite the Spirit to testify to you ways to teach your family this doctrine in your own personal family.  You never will be the same.  It will change you eternally if you memorize the Proclamation. 

We would like to be able to force our children to accept and live and want this doctrine.

Joseph F. Smith, “If you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the gospel, if you wish them to be obedient and united with you love them.  You can’t do it any other way.  You can’t do it with unkindness.  You can coax them and lead them.  By speaking kindly.  You can’t drive them.  You can’t force your boys and girls into heaven, but you may force them to hell.  You yourselves are not as good as you should be….you can old guide them with persuasion and love unfeigned. 

This is vital doctrine.  We need to teach it in our home now.  We can only love them into heaven.  Love them into knowing and understanding and gaining a testimony that this is the plan of salvation.  This is why he came to earth.  So we could have families forever.

1 Comment
V.H.
2/27/2014 08:37:12 am

After class today on communication I wanted to have some questions to ask my kids because I struggle with coming up with good questions. I found 100 questions to ask. I am going to print them off and put one under their plates at dinner time like Sister Tanner suggested. Not all of these questions I liked or would use but it gives a good variety.

http://life.familyeducation.com/communication/family-time/36021.html?page=3
Hope this helps,

V.H.

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    Carleen Tanner

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