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The Eternal Family in God's Plan

God’s plan of happiness provides a path for His children to gain bodies, progress toward eternal life, and be united with their families forever through sacred covenants in temples.

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In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and 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.

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Scriptures

Premortal Realm

  • D&C 93:23, 29 Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit. … Man was also in the beginning with God.

  • The Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; and God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

    — Abr. 3:22–23

  • All things were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my word.

    — Moses 3:7

  • The Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

    — Abr. 5:7

  • Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.

    — Jer. 1:5

  • Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

    — Eccl. 12:7

  • Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? … When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

    — Job 38:4, 7

  • In him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

    — Acts 17:28

  • In this vast congregation of the righteous, … I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God. Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.

    — D&C 138:38, 55–56

  • The earth [will] be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation before the world was made.

    — D&C 49:17

  • You may wonder if God has an identity and purpose like this for you. You may feel that being a holy and trusted servant or being sealed to a beloved companion and having children may be out of your reach. When you look in the mirror, you may not see what I have described today. If that is the way you feel, I want you to take another look. Look into the mirror with the eye of faith and see in the mirror not only your face but also the face of the Lord Jesus Christ standing beside you with power and glory and never-ending, perfect love. He did not come to leave you out of His blessings. You are who you are because of who He is. You have eternal identity and purpose because Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer.

    — Elder Kim B. Clark, “Identity and Purpose in God’s Eternal Plan,” Brigham Young University Idaho, April 22, 2014

  • The gospel teaches us that we are the spirit children of heavenly parents. Before our mortal birth we had “a pre-existent, spiritual personality, as the sons and daughters of the Eternal Father” … We were placed here on earth to progress toward our destiny of eternal life. These truths give us a unique perspective and different values to guide our decisions from those who doubt the existence of God and believe that life is the result of random processes.

    — Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “The Great Plan of Happiness,” Ensign, November 1993

God’s Plan

  • Moses 4:1–4 That Satan … was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor. But, behold, my Beloved Son … said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man [and] that I should give unto him mine own power, … I caused that he should be cast down; and he became Satan, yea, even the devil.

  • The Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first. And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.

    — Abr. 3:27–28

  • He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.

    — Eph. 1:4

  • This is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.

    — Alma 13:3

  • To bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, … it must needs be that there was an opposition. … Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

    — 2 Ne. 2:15–16, 27

  • It must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet.

    — D&C 29:39

  • The Atonement allows for the family to be sealed together eternally. It allows for families to have eternal growth and perfection. The plan of happiness, also called the plan of salvation, was a plan created for families. The rising generation need to understand that the main pillars of our theology are centered in the family.

    — Julie B. Beck, “Teaching the Doctrine of the Family,” Address to Seminary and Institute of Religion Teachers, 4 August 2009; printed in Ensign, Mar 2011

Physical Body

  • The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. … Thou [wilt] return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

    — Gen. 2:7; 3:19

  • It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

    — 1 Cor. 15:44

  • O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.

    — 2 Ne. 9:13

  • The spirit and the body are the soul of man. And the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul. … Therefore, it must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory; for after it hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father.

    — D&C 88:15–19

  • Man is spirit. The elements are eternal, 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

  • Remarkable as your body is, its prime purpose, as stated earlier, is of even greater importance—to serve as tenement for your eternal spirit. Your spirit acquired your body and became a living soul to experience mortality and the associated trials and testing. Part of that testing is to determine if the appetites of your body can become mastered by the spirit that dwells within it. When we understand our nature and our purpose on earth and that our bodies are physical temples of God, we will realize that it is sacrilege to let anything enter that might defile the body.

    — President Russell M. Nelson, “Your Body: A Magnificent Gift to Cherish,” New Era, August 2019

  • Our soul is what’s at stake here—our spirit and our body. …The purchase price for our fullness of joy—body and spirit eternally united—is the pure and innocent blood of the Savior of this world. We cannot then say in ignorance or defiance, “Well, it’s my life,” or worse yet, “It’s my body.” It is not. “Ye are not your own,” Paul said. “Ye are bought with a price.

    — Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Of Souls, Symbols and Sacraments,” BYU Devotional, January 1988; condensed version in “Personal Purity,” General Conference, April 1998

  • In answer to why such seriousness, we answer that one toying with the God-given—and satanically coveted—body of another, toys with the very soul of that individual, toys with the central purpose and product of life, “the very key” to life, as Elder Boyd K. Packer once called it. In trivializing the soul of another (please include the word body there), we trivialize the Atonement that saved that soul and guaranteed its continued existence. And when one toys with the Son of Righteousness, the Day Star himself, one toys with white heat and a flame hotter and holier than the noonday sun. You cannot do so and not be burned. You cannot with impunity ­“crucify Christ afresh” (see Hebrews 6:6). Exploitation of the body (please include the word soul there) is, in the last analysis, an exploitation of him who is the Light and the Life of the world. Perhaps here Paul’s warning to the Corinthians takes on newer, higher meaning:

    . . . Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore

    glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. [1 Corinthians 6:13-20; emphasis added]

    — Elder Jeffrey R. Holland “Of Souls, Symbols and Sacraments” BYU Devotional, 12 January 1988

Earthly Experience

  • This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

    — Alma 34:32

  • He will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

    — Alma 7:12

  • If the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

    — D&C 122:7

  • Brothers and sisters, look above your trials. Try to forget your own pain as you work to alleviate the pain of others. Mingle together as opportunity affords. It is important that we do so. We need others to talk with and to share our feelings and faith with. Cultivate friends. Begin by being a good friend to others. Share your burdens with the Lord. He has said to each of us: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” …

    Qualify for a temple recommend and live worthy of it at all times and in all circumstances. I would think that every one of you would hold a temple recommend. If you do not, then resolve that you will get your lives in order and become eligible to go to the Lord’s house. Go to the temple on a regular schedule. There you may help those who are totally helpless to help themselves. And each time you go you will leave as a better man or woman than when you entered. …

    Lose yourself in the service of others. As Jesus said, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life … shall find it” (Matt. 16:25). If you are fed up with your life, if you feel an oppressive loneliness, if you feel you are of no worth, go out and look up somebody who is in worse condition than you are—and you will find very many of them. Read to the blind, read to the aged, help those in distress, comfort those who are in sorrow. Give a little of your substance to those who are in need. Share and the world will become a sweeter, more delightful place for you. “Look to God and live” (Alma 37:47). There is so much to be done that can be wonderfully rewarding.

    — President Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Conversation with Single Adults,” From an address delivered on 22 September 1996 at the Salt Lake Tabernacle

Progress toward Eternal Life

  • Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

    — Matt. 5:48 (3 Ne. 12:48)

  • This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

    — Moses 1:39

  • This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

    — John 17:3

  • Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.

    — 1 Tim. 6:12

  • If you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.

    — D&C 14:7

  • Continue in these things even unto the end, and you shall have a crown of eternal life at the right hand of my Father, who is full of grace and truth.

    — D&C 66:12

  • If ye are faithful ye shall be laden with many sheaves, and crowned with honor, and glory, and immortality, and eternal life.

    — D&C 75:5

  • Every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.

    — D&C 101:78

  • Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them; … I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him an hundred-fold in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal worlds.

    — D&C 132:20,55

  • Individual progression is fostered in the family, which is ‘central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.’ The home is to be God’s laboratory of love and service.”

    — President Russell M. Nelson, “Salvation and Exaltation,” Ensign, May 2008, 8

  • We were created by loving heavenly parents to grow up to become like them. Male and female spirits were created to complement each other. That is why gender is not fluid in the eternities—because it provides the basis for the ultimate gift Heavenly Father can give, His kind of life. … All human beings are beloved spirit sons or daughters of heavenly parents with a divine nature and eternal destiny. The reason we have bodies is to build on that divine nature so we can ultimately realize our eternal destiny.

    — Elder Dale G. Renlund, “The Divine Purposes of Sexual Intimacy,” Ensign, August 2020

The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave.

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Scriptures

  • I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

    — Matt. 16:19

  • The Prophet Elijah was to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers, foreshadowing the great work to be done in the temples of the Lord in the dispensation of the fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their parents, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming.

    — D&C 138:47–48

  • That 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

  • If a man marry a wife by my word, … and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed … by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood; … if ye abide in my covenant, … [it] shall be of full force when they are out of the world.

    — D&C 132:19

Family History, Significance

  • President Russell M. Nelson [has] cautioned: “We can be inspired all day long about temple and family history experiences others have had. But we must do something to actually experience the joy ourselves.” He continued, “I invite you to prayerfully consider what kind of sacrifice—preferably a sacrifice of time—you can make [to] do more temple and family history work.” As you accept President Nelson’s invitation, you will discover, gather, and connect your family. Additionally, blessings will flow to you and your family like the river spoken of by Ezekiel. You will find healing for that which needs healing.

    — Elder Dale G. Renlund, “Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing,” General Conference, April 2018

  • To you who have experienced the heartache of a divorce in your family or felt the agony of violated trust, please remember it begins again with you! One link in the chain of your generations may have been broken, but the other righteous links and what remains of the chain are nonetheless eternally important. You can add strength to your chain and perhaps even help to restore the broken links. That work will be accomplished one by one.

    — Elder David A. Bednar, “A Welding Link” (worldwide devotional for young adults, Sept. 10, 2017)

  • Perhaps most humbling to me was to hear a single adult sister declare with the fire of pure testimony that the most important work we can do is to prepare for marriage and family. Although this is not her experience, she knows that family is the very heart of the work of salvation. “The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave.” We honor the Father’s plan and glorify God when we strengthen and ennoble those relationships in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. We choose to live pure and virtuous lives so that when the opportunity comes, we are prepared to make that sacred covenant in the house of the Lord and keep it forever.

    — Carol F. McConkie, “Here to Serve a Righteous Cause,” General Conference October 2015

Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

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Scriptures

  • Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart. … He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

    — Ps. 24:3–5

  • In the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.

    — Isa. 2:2–3 (Micah 4:1–2)

  • We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

    — AofF 1:3

  • This greater priesthood administereth the gospel. … Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh.

    — D&C 84:19–21

  • A baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead—for this ordinance belongeth to my house. … After you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, [it] cannot be acceptable unto me. … How shall your washings be acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name? … Your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, … and endowment of [Zion] are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build. … I will consecrate that spot that it shall be made holy.

    — D&C 124:29–44

  • A man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage].

    — D&C 131:2

  • This is a new and an everlasting covenant, even that which was from the beginning.

    — D&C 22:1

  • The great latter-day work, include[es] the building of the temples and the performance of ordinances therein.

    — D&C 138:53–54

Temples, Order of Heaven

  • To use the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the “office” of marriage, the “post of responsibility towards … mankind,” that this divine institution “from above, from God” occupies. It is the “link in the chain of the generations” both here and hereafter—the order of heaven.

    A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come. …

    Our claims for the role of marriage and family rest not on social science but on the truth that they are God’s creation. It is He who in the beginning created Adam and Eve in His image, male and female, and joined them as husband and wife to become “one flesh” and to multiply and replenish the earth. Each individual carries the divine image, but it is in the matrimonial union of male and female as one that we attain perhaps the most complete meaning of our having been made in the image of God—male and female.

    — Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “Why Marriage, Why Family?” April 2015 General Conference

  • Marriages and families are meant to be eternal. … They are the order of heaven. They are an echo of a celestial pattern and an emulation of God’s eternal family.

    — President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “In Praise of Those Who Save,” April 2016 General Conference

  • Every time we go to the temple, the ordinances reorient us to the natural order of the universe, including the natural order of marriage. Like the ancient mariner, we look to the heavens to get our bearings—and we do that through the temple. Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley wrote:

    The temple is built so as to represent the organizing principles of the universe. It is the school where mortals learn about these things. …

    … The earth temple [is] in the middle of everything, … around which all heavenly motions revolve, the knot that ties earth and heaven together.

    Thus, the temple has the power to etch God’s natural laws of marriage and family life into our hearts.

    — Elder Bruce C. Hafen, “Marriage, Family Law, and the Temple,” delivered at the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside in Salt Lake City on Jan. 31, 2014

Family History, Spiritual Power

  • Elder Russell M. Nelson has taught that the Spirit of Elijah is “a manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family” … I invite the young people of the Church to learn about and experience the Spirit of Elijah. I encourage you to study, to search out your ancestors, and to prepare yourselves to perform proxy baptisms in the house of the Lord for your kindred dead. …

    I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.

    — Elder David A. Bednar, “The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn,” General Conference, October 2011

  • Do you young people want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary in your life? Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors, prepare their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in the temple, and then go to the temple to stand as proxy for them to receive the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. As you grow older, you will be able to participate in receiving the other ordinances as well. I can think of no greater protection from the influence of the adversary in your life.

    — Elder Richard G. Scott, “The Joy of Redeeming the Dead,” General Conference, October 2012

  • As we participate in family history and temple work today, we also lay claim to “healing” blessings promised by prophets and apostles. These blessings are also breathtakingly amazing because of their scope, specificity, and consequence in mortality. This long list includes these blessings:

    • Increased understanding of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice;
    • Increased influence of the Holy Ghost to feel strength and direction for our own lives;
    • Increased faith, so that conversion to the Savior becomes deep and abiding;
    • Increased ability and motivation to learn and repent because of an understanding of who we are, where we come from, and a clearer vision of where we are going;
    • Increased refining, sanctifying, and moderating influences in our hearts;
    • Increased joy through an increased ability to feel the love of the Lord;
    • Increased family blessings, no matter our current, past, or future family situation or how imperfect our family tree may be;
    • Increased love and appreciation for ancestors and living relatives, so we no longer feel alone;
    • Increased power to discern that which needs healing and thus, with the Lord’s help, serve others;
    • Increased protection from temptations and the intensifying influence of the adversary; and
    • Increased assistance to mend troubled, broken, or anxious hearts and make the wounded whole.

    — Elder Dale G. Renlund, “Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing,” General Conference, April 2018

  • My promise to you is one that a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once made to me. I had said to him that because of choices some in our extended family had made, I doubted that we could be together in the world to come. He said, as well as I can remember, ‘You are worrying about the wrong problem. You just live worthy of the celestial kingdom, and the family arrangements will be more wonderful than you can imagine.

  • I believe that he would extend that happy hope to any of us in mortality who have done all we can to qualify ourselves and our family members for eternal life. I know that Heavenly Father’s plan is a plan of happiness. I testify that His plan makes it possible for each of us who has done the best we can to be sealed in a family forever.”

  • We know the source but not the exact wording — follow the link to read it there.

    — President Henry B. Eyring, “A Home Where the Spirit of the Lord Dwells,” Ensign, May 2019, 25

  • When I say families … I use the term the way the Lord uses it, as a synonym for kindred or multigenerational families, because everyone has a family. Our Heavenly Father’s plan for His children centers on this kind of family—with children who draw strength from ancestors many generations back and parents who seek to bless their posterity for generations to come.

    — Elder Bradley D. Foster of the Seventy, “Gathering, Healing, and Sealing Families,” given at the RootsTech Family History Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, on Feb. 14, 2015

Parents, Spiritual Leadership

  • I have heard a few parents state that they don’t want to impose the gospel on their children but want them to make up their own minds about what they will believe and follow. They think that in this way they are allowing children to exercise their agency. What they forget is that the intelligent use of agency requires knowledge of the truth, of things as they really are (see D&C 93:24). Without that, young people can hardly be expected to understand and evaluate the alternatives that come before them. Parents should consider how the adversary approaches their children. He and his followers are not promoting objectivity but are vigorous, multimedia advocates of sin and selfishness.

    Seeking to be neutral about the gospel is, in reality, to reject the existence of God and His authority. We must, rather, acknowledge Him and His omniscience if we want our children to see life’s choices clearly and be able to think for themselves. They should not have to learn by sad experience that “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10).

    — Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “Moral Discipline,” General Conference, October 2009

  • I begin with [two] examples which illustrate some mortal confusion between love and law:

    • A young adult in a cohabitation relationship tells grieving parents, “If you really loved me, you would accept me and my partner just like you accept your married children.”
    • A youth reacts to parental commands or pressure by declaring, “If you really loved me, you wouldn’t force me.”
    source needed

  • In these examples a person violating commandments asserts that parental love should override the commandments of divine law and the teachings of parents. … These persons disbelieve eternal laws which they consider contrary to their concept of the effect of God’s love. Persons who take this position do not understand the nature of God’s love or the purpose of His laws and commandments. The love of God does not supersede His laws and His commandments, and the effect of God’s laws and commandments does not diminish the purpose and effect of His love. The same should be true of parental love and rules.”

    — President Dallin H. Oaks, “Love and the Law,” General Conference, October 2009

  • The purpose of mortal families is to bring children into the world, to teach them what is right, and to prepare all family members for exaltation in eternal family relationships. The gospel plan contemplates the kind of family government, discipline, solidarity, and love that serve those ultimate goals. But even the love of family members is subject to the overriding first commandment, which is love of God (see Matt. 22:37–38), and the Savior’s directive, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). As Jesus taught, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37).

    — Elder Dallin H. Oaks “Weightier Matters,” BYU Devotional, 9 February 1999