I'm very pleased to be here with Elder Christoffel Golden and Bishop Gerald Causse to join in this discussion of strengthening the family and the Church through the priesthood. The priesthood is at the center of the plan of salvation, and the priesthood power is intended to strengthen families as well as priesthood quorums. This priesthood power means that the priesthood is to be used in the home even before it is used in other settings. This is our first responsibility. I've always felt the responsibility was ours. Our objective, we felt, was to get our children back to our Heavenly Father. One of the things we did is we would look at what our children needed in their daily teaching. For instance, we would study the scriptures together and could teach from the scriptures and from the words of the living prophets, which enhance their capacity to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think family prayer ties well into the need to begin our teaching early with our children. Teaching children is not just a responsibility of the Primary, but when they're two years old, before they qualify for a Primary class, they can be meeting with their children. And it starts there. The Church is to assist us in raising our children, but not to replace us. The family is really the first place to learn about the gospel, and especially about the priesthood. As young children observe their parents, observe their father and how he acts in the priesthood, and he is worthy of the priesthood, they will get great teaching that will help them the day they rear their own family. The key is the father needs to honorably hold his priesthood and take it seriously. One of the greatest examples I got from my father was when I would go with him home teaching. It was a Church activity and responsibility, but it was also a family activity and responsibility. And just following the example of my father and working together in the priesthood, it was the best training possible. However significant the teaching of a priesthood adviser or a Young Women adviser is in the Church--and we hope it's very effective-- that can't possibly be as effective as the example of a mother or the example of a father.

In October conference 1994, President Howard W. Hunter spoke these words to husbands and fathers who hold the priesthood: "As patriarch in the home, exercise your priesthood through performing the appropriate ordinances for your family and by giving blessings to your wife and children. Next to your own salvation, brethren, there is nothing so important to you as the salvation of your wife and children." Great counsel. One of the responsibilities but also a great privilege for all the fathers who hold the priesthood is to be able to give ordinances to their children. Blessing a newborn child, baptizing, confirming, conferring the priesthood to your son, and preparing your children to receive the temple ordinances and even the temple sealing-- this is a path of covenants that a father and a mother can work on with their children. I feel the critical part in all of this is the father is the one that needs to see to the priesthood being used for the benefit of his family. It's not just to preside in righteousness in the home, but to ensure that those ordinances that unlock the power of the Atonement are brought into the lives of the people and his family. And grandparents too. In my case, when I had no father in the home, it was a grandfather and sometimes uncles who performed the priesthood ordinances for me. They served as the role models. And in many families, there is not a priesthood holder in the home. And the role of the quorums is to visit these families and to extend the blessings of the priesthood. As a home teacher, one question we could ask ourselves is "How can I bless this family with the priesthood I hold?" When we speak about priesthood in the home, we're often assuming the Melchizedek Priesthood. But we have homes in the Church where an Aaronic Priesthood holder is the only priesthood holder in the family. I had that experience when I was 12 years old and was ordained a deacon. My father being dead, I was the oldest child in the family. I remember how my mother said how wonderful it was to have priesthood authority again in her home. Sweet, sweet experience. I was thinking about the importance of the priesthood power we use. We can use the priesthood in our home so much more frequently if we are close to the Spirit. The father who presides in the home is the patriarch in the home, and he can take the initiative any time to give a blessing. He doesn't need to wait until it's requested. Waiting until it's requested may be more a factor when he's outside his own patriarchal responsibilities. Absolutely. I think this is a good time to talk about the difference between priesthood authority and priesthood power. All who hold the priesthood are authorized; they have the authority to act for the Lord. And this applies in the ordinances that are performed under the direction of the Church and the priesthood keys. But priesthood power is more than priesthood authority. And in the various exercises of our priesthood in the family, we need priesthood power. And priesthood power depends upon personal righteousness. In the Book of Mormon, to really speak to that excellent principle, in the third book of Nephi, chapter 8:1, "And there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his inequity," speaking to this sacred responsibility we have in connection of purifying ourselves, that we may be worthy to use the priesthood for the benefit of our family. And speaking of the essential nature of personal righteousness and obedience to the commandments to have priesthood power, Elder Wilford Woodruff taught, "The nearer we live to God, the closer we obey His laws and keep His commandments, the more priesthood power we will have." Priesthood power, which is the power of God to bless all of His children, male and female, functions of course in both the family and the Church. And its blessings are available to men and women alike. Well, the priesthood is held by men, but the priesthood blessings are shared by all. Exactly. Men are not the priesthood. The priesthood is something they exercise in behalf of the sons and daughters of God. Well, this is the purpose of the Church. I would like to read from what President Boyd K. Packer said. You know, there's a difference in the way the priesthood functions in the home as compared to the way it functions in the Church. In the Church, our service is by call. In the home, our service is by choice. A calling in the Church generally is temporary, for there comes a release. Our place in the home, the family, which is based on choice, is forever and beyond. This gives a great summary of what the priesthood is doing in the home, and what the purpose of the Church is to strengthen the home so the priesthood could bless all the members of the home. There's a statement by President Monson that he said: "The gift of the priesthood is priceless. It carries with it the authority to act as God's servants, to minister to the sick, to bless our families, and to bless others as well. Its authority can reach beyond the veil of death, on into the eternities. There is nothing else to compare with it in all this world. Safeguard it. Treasure it. Live worthy of it."

Brothers and sisters, we've been speaking on the power of the priesthood in the family. It is my testimony that it is the will of the Lord that the power of the priesthood be used to bless His sons and daughters, most particularly through the families, which are the image and the forerunner of exaltation in the celestial kingdom. I know these things are true, and I invoke the blessings of the Lord as we strive to achieve this ideal, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.