When I think of our children today
and what I would hope for them, I
feel that as parents, we have the greatest
challenge on earth.
And that is to protect and strengthen our families.
That is a God-given directive.
To teach children effectively about pornography,
you have to call it what it is.
You have to help them to see that it
is a counterfeit to Heavenly Father's beautiful plan.
You have to teach children that Satan's plan is
to make them miserable and to keep them captive.
Heavenly Father's plan is to help
them to use their agency so that they are happy,
so they become like Him.
I hope and pray that parents can realize
that as they seek revelation from Heavenly Father in guiding
and directing the affairs of their home, their families,
that they will feel the power that is available to them
and that that power will be felt by their children.
I feel that their children will understand
that they are seeking to all walk in light together
and that they strengthen each other.
I think the best thing you can do to safeguard your family
is to do everything you can to create a Spirit-filled home.
We should help our kids recognize
what it feels like, what it is.
Pray for it.
And thank Heavenly Father for it when
it's there so that your kids can hear you.
The goal is to have the Spirit be so strong in your home
and so strong in their little hearts
that when the Spirit is gone, they feel it,
and they want it back so much that it's like gasping for air.
Parents have a hard job, but it's also a sacred job:
to teach their children about covenants and commandments.
And I think we make a mistake if we talk about them
as rules--"These are rules that you must keep"--because
they're more than rules.
They're really how things work.
It's a way of looking way down the road
and saying, "I can see how this will affect you later on.
So let's talk about what will help protect us."
And so commandments are the guidelines
that the Lord gives us to say, "I can see everything,
and this is what's going to make you happy."
And the covenants are when we then respond and say,
"Lord, I trust you.
I can't see what you see, but I trust you.
And so I will bind myself to keep a covenant with you."
As parents teach their children about covenants
and commandments, the first thing they need to do
is help them to learn how to keep promises.
That's as a very young child.
They learn that they do what they say.
And parents need to be an example
of that in the first place.
When they model it, they will do what they say.
Then a child learns that it's important.
Once a child understands that keeping their promises
is important and it brings them good feelings,
it brings them blessings, they're
more likely to keep their covenants.
Heavenly Father always keeps His promises.
When the child understands that, then they
are more likely to keep their promises and, in turn,
keep their covenants.
When we discuss pornography, I feel that we feel negative
and we feel afraid, and we pull back.
When understanding the plan of salvation,
understanding who we are, helping children to understand
who they are--as we help them to understand they are divine
beings, understand and appreciate their divine
identity, who they really are as sons and daughters of God--that
is so empowering to our children.
"Ye are the children of the prophets; ...
ye are of the house of Israel; ...
ye are of the covenant."
What covenant?
"The covenant ... the Father made with your fathers,
saying unto Abraham: ...
In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth
be blessed."
And then He gave His lesson: "The Father ...
sent me to bless you in turning away every one of you from
[your] iniquities."
And why?
"Because ye are ... children of the covenant."
So He immunized those people by giving them the doctrine.
My plea is that we, as parents and teachers,
inoculate our young people, our family members,
with the doctrine of Deity.
And then they will have--we will have--a sin-resistant
generation.
They must have the doctrine.