Thomas S. Monson

Will you join me as we look in on a typical Latter-day Saint family offering prayers unto God.  Father, mother, and each of the children kneel, bow their heads, and close their eyes.  A sweet spirit of love, unity, and peace fills the home.  As father hears his tiny son pray that his dad will do the right things, do you think that such a father would find it difficult to honor the prayer of his precious son?  As a teenage daughter hears her sweet mother plead that her daughter will be inspired in the choice of her companions, that she will prepare herself for a temple marriage, don't you believe that such a daughter will seek to honor this humble, pleading petition of her mother, whom she so dearly loves?


Thomas S. Monson, “Hallmarks of a Happy Home,” Ensign, Oct 2001, 2–8

Joseph B. Wirthlin

The things you say, the tone of your voice, the anger or calm of your words—these things are noticed by your children and by others. They see and learn both the kind and the unkind things we say or do. Nothing exposes our true selves more than how we treat one another in the home.

When we are filled with kindness, we are not judgmental. The Savior taught, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” 4 He also taught that “with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” 5
“But,” you ask, “what if people are rude?”
Love them.
“If they are obnoxious?”
Love them.
“But what if they offend? Surely I must do something then?”
Love them.
“Wayward?”
The answer is the same. Be kind. Love them.
Why? In the scriptures Jude taught, “And of some have compassion, making a difference.” 6
Who can tell what far-reaching impact we can have if we are only kind?

 Joseph B. Wirthlin, “The Virtue of Kindness,” Ensign, May 2005, 26

Susan W. Tanner

...[L]ove is the foundational virtue in building a strong home. Our Father in Heaven exemplifies the pattern we should follow.  He loves us, teaches us, is patient with us, and entrusts us with our agency.  President Hinckley said: "Love can make the difference - love generously given in childhood and reaching through the awkward years of youth ... and encouragement that is quick to compliment and slow to criticize." Sometimes discipline, which means "to teach" is confused with criticism.  Children - as well as people of all ages - improve behavior from love and encouragement more than from fault-finding.

Susan W. Tanner, “Did I Tell You … ?,” Ensign, May 2003, 73

LeGrand R. Curtis

In our homes, we should exhibit hospitality, and friends should feel welcome.  In our home, we preferred that our children search our refrigerator and use our kitchen rather than search the many dark places in the world.  Ice cream is better bought early than wished-for later.

LeGrand R. Curtis, “Happiness Is Homemade,” Ensign, Nov 1990, 12

Wendy L. Watson

When we recognize and lay hold on the good things in our family, we actually increase the good; because in order to offer sincere commendations, honest compliments, and specific praise, we really have to study a subject.  When we care enough to look closely, to get up close and notice, we will see our family members in a new light and be able to commend them on their goodness, their competence, their courage, their tenacity, perhaps even their patience with us.  That means we need to be with them in a very different way, and that different way of being together will invite more light - and our ability to lay hold upon even more good things will increase.

Wendy L. Watson, "'Searching Diligently in the Light of Christ'," Every Good Thing, 1997 BYU Women's Conference, 49

Robert F. Orton

Most of us profess to love God.  The challenge, I have observed, is loving our neighbor.  The term neighbor includes family, people with whom we work, those whom we see in geographical proximity to our home and at church, and even the enemy, though we do not condone what the latter does.  If we do not love all of these, our brothers and sisters, can we truly say that we love God?  The Apostle John declared "that he who loveth God love his brother also," and added, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar" (1 Jn. 4:21, 20). Love of God and neighbor must therefore be inseparably connected.

Robert F. Orton, "'The First and Great Commandment'," Ensign, Nov 2001, 81

Melvin J. Ballard

I remember a gentleman, a minister, said on one occasion, in a private discussion which I had with him, that he thought we were too positive about the things of religion. He thought we had not considered the question of God enough to be able to speak with such certainty. He informed me that he belonged to a church that was several hundred years older than the one to which I belonged, and he said that his church had been considering these questions for a long time and had altered their view and their opinion about a good many theological questions. I granted that that was true; and he ventured the assertion that after we had been discussing these theological questions as long as they had, perhaps we would change our opinion also. And in order to establish his point he used this illustration:

"If you had a problem to give for solution and you selected ten boys to solve the problem, and you gave one of them ten days in which to study it, and then another boy nine days and still another boy eight, and so forth, until you had one boy studying on the problem but one day and one studying ten days; now which boy, at the conclusion of the ten days, would know most about the problem, the one who had been studying but one day or the one who had studied ten days?"

Well, you would have to concede, as I did, that if all things were equal, of course, the boy that had been studying ten days ought to know most about the problem.

"Well, there you are," he said; "we have been studying it longer than you have, and you are one of the youngest churches, and so you are likely to change your mind when you study it a little longer."

"But," I said, "suppose the boy who has had the problem but one day receives the visit of a professor who knows all about the problem and who illustrates it so that now it is perfectly clear to the mind of the boy, who knows most about it, the boy who has thus been aided, only having had the chance to study it one day, or the boy who has been dreaming about it for ten days?"

"Why," he said, "of course, the boy who was thus aided and assisted knew most about the problem."

Then I said: "That is exactly where we stand." Joseph Smith did not know, because of earthly wisdom and his reading of the scriptures, more about our Father in heaven and His Son Jesus Christ, than the learned ministers of the world. Not by that means did he obtain his knowledge, but in the few moments that he knelt in the sacred grove in the presence of the Father and the Son he knew more about God the eternal Father and His Son Jesus Christ than all the ministers of all the world ever have known, or ever will know, except they shall be, in like manner, informed and instructed. So that the wisdom he had came to him from the Source to which men must go if they shall know our Father in heaven.

Melvin J. Ballard, Conference Report, April 1920