Strengthening Our Marriages, Families, and Homes

Read the following with the sisters you visit, and discuss the questions, the scriptures, and the teachings from our Church leaders. Share your experiences and testimony, and invite those you teach to do the same.

What Is the Lord’s View of Marriage, Family, and Home?

Mark 10:6–8: “From the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh.”

The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. … Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona, October 1998, 24).

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “What if you are single or have not been blessed with children? Do you need to be concerned about the counsel regarding families? Yes. It is something we all need to learn in earth life. Unmarried adult members can often lend a special kind of strength to the family, becoming a tremendous source of support, acceptance, and love to their families and the families of those around them” (“Strengthening Families: Our Sacred Duty,” Liahona, July 1999, 40).

What Simple Things Can Build Strong Family Relationships?

Mosiah 4:15: “Ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.”

The First Presidency: “We counsel parents and children to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel study and instruction, and wholesome family activities. However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform” (First Presidency letter, 11 February 1999; see Liahona, December 1999, 1).

President Gordon B. Hinckley: “A good marriage requires time. It requires effort. You have to work at it. You have to cultivate it. You have to forgive and forget. You have to be absolutely loyal” (“Life’s Obligations,” Liahona, May 1999, 4).

“I know of no single practice that will have a more salutary effect upon your lives than the practice of kneeling together as you begin and close each day. Somehow the little storms that seem to afflict every marriage are dissipated when, kneeling before the Lord, you thank him for one another, … then together invoke his blessings upon your lives” (“‘Except the Lord Build the House … ,’” Ensign, June 1971, 72).

Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “If you are single and haven’t identified a solid prospect for celestial marriage, live for it. Pray for it. Expect it in the timetable of the Lord. Do not compromise your standards in any way that would rule out that blessing on this or the other side of the veil” (“Receive the Temple Blessings,” Liahona, July 1999, 31).

Illustration by Justin Kunz