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Strengthening the Family

Emphasis on the home and family was a major feature in the teachings and leadership of President David O. McKay. As the priesthood correlation program unfolded, Church leaders focused on the home as the most effective place for teaching and applying gospel principles. Strong homes, they believed, would provide the surest defense against the temptations of modern life, which at the same time were undermining the institution of the home and family. In the face of increasing challenges to the home, the General Authorities took steps to strengthen the family in its vital role in today's world.

Teaching the Gospel in the Home

The scriptures in all ages have affirmed that parents have the primary responsibility to teach their children. An Old Testament proverb admonished: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6). In his great concluding discourse, the Nephites' King Benjamin counseled his people that those who were truly converted would not permit their children to "transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil," but rather they would "teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness [and] to love one another, and to serve one another" (Mosiah 4:14-15). Latter-day revelations have commanded parents to bring up their children "in light and truth," and to teach them "to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord," warning that if they fail to do so, "the sin [will] be on the heads of the parents" (see D&C 68:25-28; 93:40). Twentieth-century prophets have echoed this same message. For example, President Heber J. Grant cautioned:

I have heard men and women say that they were going to let their sons and daughters grow to maturity before they sought to teach them the principles of the gospel, that they were not going to cram the gospel down them in their childhood, before they were able to comprehend it. When I hear men and women say this, I think they are lacking faith in the principles of the gospel and do not comprehend it as they should. The Lord has said it is our duty to teach our children in their youth, and I prefer to take His word for it rather than the words of those who are not obeying His commandments .... I may know that the gospel is true, and so may my wife; but I want to tell you that your children will not know that the gospel is true, unless they study it and gain a testimony for themselves. Parents are deceiving themselves in imagining that their children will be born with a knowledge of the gospel. 1

President David O. McKay further explained that "the character of the child is formed largely during the first twelve years of his life when he spends sixteen times as many waking hours in the home as in school, and more than a hundred times as many hours in the home as in the Church." He concluded, "Every child is, to a great degree, what he is because of the ever constant influence of home environment and the careful or neglectful training of parents .... " 2