Ward Conference 2010: Home Is the Basis of a Righteous Life

 

The theme for our ward conference and in our stake for 2010 is:

Home is the basis of a righteous life, 

and no other instrumentality 

can take its place or fulfill its essential functions.

The families and individuals that comprise our wards, branches and communities are under attack. The gap between prophetically inspired standards of behavior and acceptable cultural standards is widening. If we are to take back any lost territory, it will be in our homes and among our family members.

These topics were discussed during the third hour as suggestions for more righteous family life:

Create a nurturing climate

The word nurture means to help something grow. ...The job of parents in rearing children is to keep a climate where children can grow with the spirit, where there's faith and hope and charity. 

Cheryl B. Lant, Primary General President

Be equal partners in “homemaking”

Homemaking is not just baking bread or cleaning a house. Homemaking is to make the environment necessary to nurture our children toward eternal life, which is our responsibility as parents. And that homemaking is as much for fathers as it is for mothers. ...Fathers should call their families around them for family prayer...make sure family home evenings are held...fathers are to preside.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Schedule activities and family councils

We are trying to discipline the use of Church meetings and Church activities in favor of the family. And the family has got to fill that vacuum instead of inviting others in to fill it.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Find joy in the Sabbath

Early scriptural declarations...have been about the joy of the Sabbath, the joy of worship, and the delight of the Sabbath. Surely we can do better at having a Sabbath together.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Eat together

Perhaps nothing is as unifying in the course of a week as to eat together at the agreed-upon mealtime.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Use wisdom and good judgment 

We’ve go to have the wisdom and judgment to be able to kind of “do it all.” It's just that we can’t do it all at once, and we sometimes don't need to do all of the things we've done. But the essential things we will be blessed to do.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Taken from Building up a Righteous Posterity, Worldwide Leadership Training, 9 Feb 2008

Photo credit: circlebackstudio