The Family: A Proclamation to the World
“The Family is Central to the Creator's Plan”
December 15 - December 21
scripture
quotes
Our Individual Identity
<p>“I love these words: ‘In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan.’ We lived before our birth. Our individual identity is stamped in us forever. In ways we don’t fully understand, our spiritual growth there in the premortal world influences who we are here. We accepted God’s plan. We knew that we would experience difficulties, pain, and sorrow upon the earth. We also knew that the Savior would come and that as we proved ourselves worthy, we would rise in the Resurrection, having ‘glory added upon [our] heads for ever and ever.’”</p>
Neil L. Andersen, “The Eye of Faith,” April 2019 General Conference
The Eternal Nature of the Family
<p>“The faithful widowed mother who raised us had no confusion about the eternal nature of the family. She always honored the position of our deceased father. She made him a presence in our home. She spoke of the eternal duration of their temple marriage. She often reminded us of what our father would like us to do so we could realize the Savior’s promise that we could be a family forever. I recall an experience that shows the effect of her teachings. Just before Christmas one year, our bishop asked me, as a deacon, to help him deliver Christmas baskets to the widows of the ward. I carried a basket to each door with his greetings. When he drove me home, there was one basket remaining. He handed it to me and said it was for my mother. As he drove away, I stood in the falling snow wondering why there was a basket for my mother. She never referred to herself as a widow, and it had never occurred to me that she was. To a 12-year-old boy, she wasn’t a widow. She had a husband, and we had a father. He was just away for a while.”</p>
Dallin H. Oaks, “Priesthood Authority in the Family and the Church,” October 2005 General Conference
commentary
Family Proclamation Paragraph 3
<p>The third paragraph of the family proclamation provides a brief outline of the plan of happiness (Alma 42:8). One of the most important revelations given to the restored Church is that life does not begin at birth nor end with death. Abraham was shown in vision “the intelligences that were organized before the world was” (Abraham 3:22). An 1833 revelation to Joseph Smith teaches men and women that “ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit . . . Man was also in the beginning with God” (D&C 93:23, 29). At present, we only know basic details about our premortal existence, but the scriptures testify that we lived with God and chose to come to mortality, accepting the challenges and trials we would face during our mortal lives (Abraham 3:22–25).</p> <p>Most Christians believe that because of Jesus Christ and His Atonement, they will find life after death. Latter-day Saint doctrine adds more knowledge to this conversation about what will happen after death. Joseph Smith taught that the “same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy” (D&C 130:2).<a id="_ftnref1" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> Family relationships are linked to many of the most meaningful and joyful moments in life. We do not transcend these relationships when we leave this life; instead, these relationships become the basis for our eternal life.</p> <p>In one sentence, the family proclamation teaches the purpose of life: the sons and daughters of God “accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.”<a id="_ftnref2" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> Latter-day Saints accept the eternal nature of the spirit while testifying of the importance of receiving a body while we are here on earth. Although some Christians speak of the body as a prison, the revelations given to Joseph Smith teach that the opposite is true. Separation from our bodies is a kind of prison and “spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; and when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy” (D&C 93:33–34).</p> <p>The final sentence of the third paragraph teaches where we can access the keys to eternal life and eternal families: the temple. Sacred temples are where all the elements of mankind’s premortal, mortal, and postmortal choices come together. In the holy temple, ordinances teach men and women about their divine origins, the purpose of life on earth, and the covenants necessary to gain exaltation. Temple ordinances allow for the creation of eternal families, both for living participants and for those who have already passed on to the next life. Latter-day Saints believe that all people will eventually have the opportunity to accept these ordinances, whether in this life or the next.</p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn1" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Instruction, 2 April 1843, as Reported by William Clayton, p. 67, JSP.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn2" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org.</p> </div>
Doctrine and Covenants Minute by Casey Paul Griffiths
