Today's Favorite Verse: Matthew 19:14

Today's Favorite Verse: Matthew 19:14

"But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

This verse made me think of this.

"And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.

For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized.

And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of the hands."

(Doctrine and Covenants 68:25-27)

I've been reflecting on the state of families, and how I can hardly find a member family now without a child that has wandered. Taking entire generations with them. As a parent you grieve and wonder what more could I have done? If we raised them in the gospel, saw them baptized, watched them go on missions, marry in the temple, we got them to the point they needed to be. If they fall away after that then it is by their own choice. Sometimes you don't even get as far as seeing them serve the mission or marry in the temple. There is no way you can make a stubborn teenager go to church and like it, once they have rebelled. Love of the gospel had to come when they were a child. What is the requirement for parents? It is to teach them the gospel before the age of eight and to be baptized. The Lord said to forbid them not, to come unto me. Forbid = refuse someone entry, is the same as not bringing them there in the first place.

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

(Proverbs 22:6)

"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."

(3 Nephi 22:13)

“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never taught a more comforting doctrine—that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God”

(Orson F. Whitney, in Conference Report, Apr. 1929, 110).

(Joseph Smith, Jr., "Hope for Parents of Wayward Children", Ensign, Sept 2002)

Much has changed for the worse in the 31 years since Elder Boyd K. Packer said this.

“The measure of our success as parents, however, will not rest solely on how our children turn out. That judgment would be just only if we could raise our families in a perfectly moral environment, and that now is not possible.

It is not uncommon for responsible parents to lose one of their children, for a time, to influences over which they have no control. They agonize over rebellious sons or daughters. They are puzzled over why they are so helpless when they have tried so hard to do what they should.

It is my conviction that those wicked influences one day will be overruled. …

We cannot overemphasize the value of temple marriage, the binding ties of the sealing ordinance, and the standards of worthiness required of them. When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them”

(Elder Boyd K. Packer, “Our Moral Environment," April 1992 General Conference)

Day 3107