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Worldwide LeadershipTraining MeetingBuilding Up a Righteous PosterityFEBRUARY 9, 2008THE CHURCHOF JESUSCHRISTOFLATTER-DAY SAINTS

Published byThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsSalt Lake City, Utah 2008 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc.All rights reservedPrinted in the United States of AmericaEnglish approval: 5/07

ContentsGeneral Patterns and Specific Lives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Elder Jeffrey R. HollandThe Proclamation on the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4President Boyd K. PackerRoundtable Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Elder Dallin H. OaksElder Jeffrey R. HollandJulie B. BeckSusan W. TannerCheryl C. LantA Sanctuary from the World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29President Thomas S. Monson

General Patternsand Specific LivesELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLANDOf the Quorum of the Twelve ApostlesOngoing Emphasis on the FamilyBrothers and sisters, we welcomeyou to our 2008 worldwide leadershiptraining broadcast. Our theme today,“Building Up a Righteous Posterity,”continues the Church’s ongoingemphasis on family matters. Two yearsago, the broadcast focused on thetopic “Supporting the Family,” containing counsel we will refer to today.You’ve also heard other spokenand written messages, including carefully worded letters from the First2FEBRUARY 2008Presidency regarding the need tostrengthen and protect the family.One of those letters, to have beenread in sacrament meetings and delivered to families by home teachers,contains this language: “We call uponparents to devote their best efforts tothe teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which willkeep them close to the Church. . . .However worthy and appropriateother demands or activities may be,they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed dutiesthat only parents and families canadequately perform.”1You realize we are addressing theentire adult population of the Churchin this broadcast. It may seem unusualto have young single adults invited toa discussion primarily about buildingup a righteous posterity. But we haveextended that invitation consciously.You single adults must and will be theparents of tomorrow. And whileyou’re planning and preparing forthat opportunity, you are very muchpart of your own parents’ posteritynow and in the future. We are prayingfor all such to be righteously devotedto the family principles the Churchand your parents espouse.Furthermore, we know that othersin our audience and in the Church arenot now married, nor do some havean intact family fitting the ideal weregularly refer to in the Church.Please be assured we are fully awareof the many different circumstancesthat exist among our members. Welove every one of you. We also realizethat as more and more families are indisarray and as many cultural forcesdevalue marriage, children, and traditional family life, the GeneralAuthorities and general officers of theChurch feel increased urgency tospeak of ideals and gospel-centeredprinciples. Otherwise, the moral driftwhich the world inevitably experiences could take us to a point whereearnest people in and out of theChurch are truly at sea when it comesto divine expectations in marriageand eternal family standards.Patterns and ReplicasLet me use a parable that I hopecan make this point, whatever yourmarital or family circumstance. Forlack of a better title, I call it “TheParable of the Homemade Shirt.” Mymother, bless her, was a marvelousseamstress. In my childhood years,when money was short and newclothing hard to come by, she wouldsometimes make clothing for us to

wear to school. I would see a shirtin a store window or in a mail-ordercatalog, and my mother would say,“I think I can make that.” By lookingat the shirt as closely as she could,she would then cut cloth and put inseams to a degree that was close tothe expensive original.I pay her the tribute of being bothwilling and able to do that. But shedidn’t like to do it that way. Whileshe could study the commercial product and come close, what she reallywanted was a pattern. A patternhelped her anticipate angles andcorners and seams and stitches thatwere otherwise hard to recognize.Furthermore, if she went back for asecond or a third shirt, she was alwaysworking from a perfect original pattern, not repeating or multiplying theimperfections of a replica.I think you can see my point andhers. We are bound to be in trouble ifa shirt is made from a shirt that wasmade from a shirt. A mistake or two inthe first product—inevitable withouta pattern—gets repeated and exaggerated, intensified, more awkward,the more repetitions we make, untilfinally this thing I’m to wear to schooljust doesn’t fit. One sleeve’s too long.The other’s too short. One shoulderseam runs down my chest. The otherruns down my back. And the frontcollar button fastens behind my neck.I can tell you right now that such alook is not going to go over well inthe seventh grade.We can agree on the pattern as it comes from God, and we can strive for itsrealization the best way we can.The Ideal Pattern from GodNow, I hope this helps you understand why we talk about the pattern,the ideal, of marriage and family whenwe know full well that not everyonenow lives in that ideal circumstance.It is precisely because many don’thave, or perhaps have never evenseen, that ideal and because somecultural forces steadily move us awayfrom that ideal, that we speak aboutwhat our Father in Heaven wishes forus in His eternal plan for His children.Individual adaptations have to bemade as marital status and family circumstances differ. But all of us canagree on the pattern as it comes fromGod, and we can strive for its realization the best way we can.We who are General Authoritiesand general officers are called toteach His general rules. You and wethen lead specific lives and must seekthe Lord’s guidance regarding specificcircumstances. But there would bemass confusion and loss of gospelpromises if no general ideal and nodoctrinal standard were establishedand, in our case today, repeated. Wetake great strength in knowing theLord has spoken on these matters,and we accept His counsel even whenit might not be popular.Thank you for understanding whywe are concerned about protecting allmembers of families, whatever yourage, and why we speak in oppositionto trends or forces that would seek todestroy any aspect of God’s eternalplan of happiness. How grateful weare that the Lord has said, “I will giveunto you a pattern in all things, that yemay not be deceived” (D&C 52:14).NOTE1. First Presidency letter, Feb. 11, 1999.FEBRUARY 20083

The Proclamationon the FamilyP R E S I D E N T B OY D K . PA C K E RPresident of the Quorum of the Twelve ApostlesTranscendent IdeasI’m grateful to participate in thismeeting and greet all of you acrossthe world on this very sacred andsolemn occasion with perhaps themost important subject that we couldbring to you from the leadership ofthe Church. We have watched, as youhave watched, the patterns of theworld and have become increasinglyconcerned about the matters of homeand family.4FEBRUARY 2008The Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-day Saints is the restoredChurch, and the initial introductionwas the appearance of the Father andthe Son to the Prophet Joseph Smith.In that great First Vision, as we referto it now, two great transcendentideas were revealed that have guidedthe Church ever since.The first: He is the Father. Of allthe titles that God might have givento Himself, He chose the one that’sclosest to all of us. He is our Father.We accept that—that we are the children of God. And with the Son beingthere, it became a family introduction.And so the Father and the Sonappeared.In a revelation given shortly thereafter, the Lord said, “Wherefore, I theLord, knowing the calamity whichshould come upon the inhabitants ofthe earth, called upon my servantJoseph Smith, Jun., and spake untohim from heaven, and gave him commandments” (D&C 1:17).Living by RevelationAnd that was a beginning. It wasthe pattern, that we are to act andorganize and live according to therevelations that the Lord had given.These revelations, as you know, compiled in the book of the Doctrine andCovenants and the revelations in theBook of Mormon and Pearl of GreatPrice, form the scriptural foundationfor the Church.We found that the Lord did notorganize the Church according to thepatterns of the other churches of theworld. That is, there is no professionalclergy. We don’t have seminaries assuch to prepare clergymen or clergywomen to guide the Church. It issummed up in another sentence that“every man might speak in the nameof God the Lord, . . . the Savior of theworld” (D&C 1:20).We find in that an equality of thebrethren who hold the priesthoodand the women who stand at theirside. We work together, and we’reorganized first as families. We all havethe right to inspiration and revelation,and oh, how we need it in this world,especially in the great challenge ofraising a family.Raising a Righteous PosterityNow, the theme of this meeting isto raise up a righteous posterity; it isan obligation. The first commandment given to Adam and Eve was thatthey were to multiply and replenishthe earth, and the processes of multiplying and replenishing the earth

The first commandment given to Adam and Eve was to multiply and replenish theearth. That pattern has continued through all human history.were given to them in their bodies.And that pattern would continuethrough all of the annals of humanhistory.So we had the first family—Adamand his wife, Eve, and then their children. We know that there had beena war in heaven and that there hadbeen a rebellion and that Satan hadbeen cast out. He was determined todestroy the works of the Almighty andwas informed enough or wise enoughor even inspired enough to know thatthe place where he should start hisdestruction was with the family. Wesee that in the account of Adam andEve. Then as the history of theChurch unfolded, the responsibilityof parents and children emerged.A Proclamation to the WorldNot too many years ago therecame a movement in the worldhaving to do with the family. TheUnited Nations called a council on thefamily in Beijing, China. We sent delegations to that council on the familyand to other councils that were held.And then it was announced that oneof them would be held near our headquarters, and we thought, “Well, ifthey are coming here, we had betterproclaim ourselves.”A proclamation in the Church isa significant, major announcement.Very few of them have been issuedfrom the beginning of the Church.They are significant; they are revelatory. And at that time, this was a littlemore than 10 years ago, the Brethrenissued “The Family: A Proclamationto the World.” It is scripturelike in itspower.Now, you will hear in the otherpresentations that are made many references to the proclamation on thefamily. I thought it would be of goodpurpose to read it to you. We knowwe’ve read it. But if we read it slowlyand carefully and articulate it verywell, it may have more revelation thanyou thought was there.When you wonder why we are theway we are and why we do the thingswe do and why we will not do someof the things that we will not do, youcan find the authority for that in thisproclamation on the family. There aretimes when we are accused of beingintolerant because we won’t acceptand do the things that are supposedto be the norm in society. Well, thethings we won’t do, we won’t do. Andthe things we won’t do, we can’t do,because the standard we follow isgiven of Him.FEBRUARY 20085