Families Are Eternal  

The Family is Central to God's Eternal Plan of Happiness.

Presdient and Prophet Russel M. Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, Individual progression is fostered in the family, which is “central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”⁹ The home is to be God’s laboratory of love and service. There a husband is to love his wife, a wife is to love her husband, and parents and children are to love one another.

Throughout the world, the family is increasingly under attack. If families fail, many of our political, economic, and social systems will also fail. And if families fail, their glorious eternal potential cannot be realized.

Our Heavenly Father wants husbands and wives to be faithful to each other and to esteem and treat their children as an heritage from the Lord. In such a family we study the scriptures and pray together. And we fix our focus on the temple. There we receive the highest blessings that God has in store for His faithful children.

We are counseled to "Train up a child in the way he should go." Prov. 22:6. "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord." Isa. 54:13 (3 Ne. 22:13).

The concept of a united family that lives and progresses forever is at the core of Latter-day Saint doctrine. Within families led by a father and a mother, children develop virtues such as love, trust, loyalty, cooperation and service.

According to Church doctrine, a marriage performed in one of the Church’s temples does not dissolve at death as long as the couple remain faithful to their temple vows. Rather, the family relationship continues beyond the grave, and individual family members can progress throughout eternity.

In 1995, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — the Church’s two highest governing bodies — issued a proclamation explaining the divine nature of the family and how family relationships should be conducted and nurtured. (Read “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”)

In 1915, Church leaders established a program that would urge parents to gather their families around them once a week for an evening devoted to family. Family home evening is a time when parents can teach children principles of the gospel. A typical family home evening includes a prayer, song, short lesson, activity and refreshments. Lessons are taught by parents and sometimes by children.