Family: Speak Kindly

“We must be so careful in speaking to a child. What we say or don’t say, how we say it and when is so very, very important in shaping a child’s view of himself or herself. But it is even more important in shaping that child’s faith in us and their faith in God. Be constructive in your comments to a child—always. Never tell them, even in whimsy, that they are fat or dumb or lazy or homely. You would never do that maliciously, but they remember and may struggle for years trying to forget—and to forgive. And try not to compare your children, even if you think you are skillful at it. You may say most positively that ‘Susan is pretty and Sandra is bright,’ but all Susan will remember is that she isn’t bright and Sandra that she isn’t pretty. Praise each child individually for what that child is, and help him or her escape our culture’s obsession with comparing, competing, and never feeling we are ‘enough.’”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Tongue of Angels”, April 2007 General Conference.

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Trials: Complaining About It

“Yes, life has its problems, and yes, there are negative things to face, but…no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Tongue of Angels”, April 2007 General Conference.

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Family: Garnishing Love Takes Time

“A friend of mine recently shared what he considered to be a choice learning experience. It was provided by his young son. Upon returning home from his day’s work, this father greeted his boy with a pat on the head and said, ‘Son, I want you to know I love you.’

The son responded with, ‘Oh Dad, I don’t want you to love me, I want you to play football with me.’ Here was a boy conveying a much-needed message.

The world is filled with too many of us who are inclined to indicate our love with an announcement or declaration.

True love is a process. True love requires personal action. Love must be continuing to be real. Love takes time. Too often expediency, infatuation, stimulation, persuasion, or lust are mistaken for love. How hollow, how empty if our love is no deeper than the arousal of momentary feeling or the expression in words of what is no more lasting than the time it takes to speak them….

We must at regular and appropriate intervals speak and reassure others of our love and the long time it takes to prove it by our actions. Real love does take time.”

Marvin J. Ashton, "Love Takes time", October 1975 General Conference

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Finances: Are We Pursuing What Money Can't Buy?

"When we have plans or tendencies that are money-oriented and look forward to all the things that money will buy, it’s a good time to stop and ask if in the pursuit we are losing the things money won’t buy. In our daily commitments to money and the accumulation of worldly goods and acclaim 'to insure a happy future,' we may be passing by in our daily conduct the things we are trying to find. Some who are missing quality life as they go along may well miss it altogether."

Marvin J. Ashton, "The Time Is Now", April 1975 general Conference

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Education: More Prosperity & Education Connected to Higher Family Values

“…Worrisome is the ever-growing gap between the rich and poor and between those who strive to preserve family values and commitments and those who have given up on doing so. Statistically, those who have less education and consequently lower incomes are less likely to marry and to go to church and much more likely to be involved in crime and to have children outside of marriage. And these trends are also troubling in much of the rest of the world. (See W. Bradford Wilcox and others, “No Money, No Honey, No Church: The Deinstitutionalization of Religious Life among the White Working Class,” available at www.virginia.edu/marriageproject/pdfs/Religion_WorkingPaper.pdf.)

Opposite of what many had thought, prosperity and education seem to be connected to a higher likelihood of having traditional families and values.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard, "That the Lost May Be Found", April 2012 General Conference

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Learn more about M. Russell Ballard.

*Photo source: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/dont-rule-out-having-children-because-you-want-to-have-a-career/273154/