“Take Especial Care of Your Family”
Doctrine and Covenants 126:1–3
1 Dear and well-beloved brother, Brigham Young, verily thus saith the Lord unto you: My servant Brigham, it is no more required at your hand to leave your family as in times past, for your offering is acceptable to me.
2 I have seen your labor and toil in journeyings for my name.
3 I therefore command you to send my word abroad, and take especial care of your family from this time, henceforth and forever. Amen.
The First Presidency (Presidents Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, and James E. Faust) wrote:
“We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.
“We counsel parents and children to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel study and instruction, and wholesome family activities. However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform.”
(First Presidency letter, Feb. 11, 1999; see also Handbook 2: Administering the Church [2010], 1.4.1)
