By Alan on Mar 16 in Blog tagged be a defender, be together throughout eternity, change the world, do the dishes together, Endure To The End, eternal truths, family activities, family home evening, family prayer, feel the Spirit, forces of Satan, G rated movies, get married, God's definition of marriage, God's Plan of Life, gospel study, help your siblings, high priorities to family, highest priorities, hug your brother, in time and eternity, make home a holy place, most important unit, not the worlds, ordained of God, plan of happiness, raise a righteous family, remember your ancestors, role of men and women, sacred law of chastity, sanctity of the family, support one another, talk about the good, The Family, uncleanliness, wholesome family life | Comments Off
Be a Defender of the Family
You can help change the world by standing up for what prophets have taught about the family.
Did you know that you can help change the world during your teenage years? You have the power within you to stand up for eternal truths that are being attacked in one of Satan’s biggest battles. How can you do it? You can make a huge difference by being a defender of the family and letting those around you know that “the family is ordained of God. It is the most important unit in time and in eternity”.
“Because of the importance of the family to the eternal plan of happiness, Satan makes a major effort to destroy the sanctity of the family, demean the importance of the role of men and women, encourage moral uncleanliness and violations of the sacred law of chastity, and to discourage parents from placing the bearing and rearing of children as one of their highest priorities”. (Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “The Eternal Family,” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 65).
You can help counter the destructive forces of Satan by standing up for the family through your actions and in your conversations at home, in the community, and even online. Here are several ways you can defend the family every day.
1. Put family time first. With so many sporting 
events, parties, school functions, and other activities in your schedule, it’s easy to say, “I’ll spend time with my family later—when things slow down.” But you’ll soon find that life will never slow down, so it’s important to give high priority to family activities now. Don’t underestimate the way you can defend the family unit just by participating in your family unit.
For example, be on the front row at your brother’s music recital. Read the family newsletter your mother wrote. Be excited about the familyhome evening lesson your sister planned. Listen to and use kind words with your family members. See how close you grow as you support one another in your interests.
The First Presidency has taught: “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”.
2. Strengthen your family members. Look for ways to make life easier for your siblings and parents. 
Find something they need help with and do it, such as giving a hug to a brother who had a hard day at school or helping your sister when it’s her turn to do the dishes. When you support one another in your needs, your family will grow stronger as one. Remember that family happiness is a team effort.
“We need to understand that we are each an important and integral part of a family and the highest blessings can be received only within an eternal family. … Being one in a family carries a great responsibility of caring, loving, lifting, and strengthening each member of the family so that all can righteously endure to the end in mortality and dwell together throughout eternity. … The eternal nature of an individual becomes the eternal nature of the family”.
3. Be an example of good family life. Let your friends
know about successes your family shares. You could talk with them about something fun your family did together over the weekend. Tell them about your brother’s winning goal or your sister’s high score on the test you helped her study for. Don’t say anything bad about your parents or siblings, but focus just on the good things your family does—in both face-to-face and online conversations.
Do your part to make your home a holy place where others can feel the Spirit (see D&C 88:119) and where they can see what God’s plan for families is all about. Consider inviting friends over when your familyspends time together so they can see the joy of family friendships.
4. Stand up for the family in your conversations. When conversations come up in school, work, and other activities—or even in text messages, e-mails, social networking sites, or online articles—where truths about the family are attacked, have the courage to defend the doctrines about Heavenly Father’s plan for families. The world continues to attack these eternal doctrines, and it’s up to you to be a voice of truth. The Spirit will help you know what to say.
5. Beware of how the media defines families. Much in the media today does not 
support God’s definition of marriage and families. It might endorse or glorify alternatives to wholesome family life that are contrary to God’s plan. The counsel in For the Strength of Youth can apply to teachings about the family: “Satan uses media to deceive you by making what is wrong and evil look normal, humorous, or exciting. He tries to mislead you into thinking that breaking God’s commandments is acceptable and has no negative consequences for you or others. … Have the courage to walk out of a movie, change your music, or turn off a computer, television, or mobile device if what you see or hear drives away the Spirit” ([2011], 11).
When you choose media that support the principles of an eternal family, it will be easier to strengthen the family and also prepare for a future temple marriage.
6. Many of your ancestors have not received
the essential ordinances that seal them together as families. Remember that defending the family isn’t just about the families on the earth today, but it’s also about all families. With new.familysearch.org, it’s easy to prepare names for temple work to help deceased family members receive the sealing ordinances. (You can watch video tutorials about FamilySearch at lds.org/fhy)
7. Develop habits today that you want in your future family. Even if you don’t come from a strong family, you can make your future familystrong as you prepare for and worthily marry in the temple and seek to raise a righteous family of your own. Think about the types of things you want to do in your future family, and start those habits today. For example, even if your family doesn’t have daily scripture study, you can study the scriptures on your own each day. By forming that habit now, it will be easy to hold family scripture study when you get married.
You can also defend the family by deciding now that when you are older you will marry in the temple for time and for all eternity, and then strive to have children and raise them in righteousness. We have been counseled: “All members, even if they … are without family in the Church, should strive for the ideal of living in an 
eternal family. This means preparing to become worthy spouses and loving fathers or mothers”.
Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president, has said to the young members of the Church, “This generation will be called upon to defend the doctrine of the family as never before”. When you do this and live as a defender of the family, you can change your future and your family’s future and also be a part of a generation that can change the future of the world as you protect the family together. Even if you don’t see immediate results, your actions will be an influence for good in supporting Heavenly Father’s plan for eternal families.
By Alan on Nov 15 in Blog tagged Alan Osmond, an enemy to God, choices, courage, desire to serve others, Faith in Jesus Christ, fulfill my purpose, fulfill prophecy, God's Plan of Life, goodness, joy and thanksgiving, life is good, my eternal companion, natural man, principles, relationships, scriptures, spiritual children having human experiences, Suzanne, The Family, the feelings of my heart, this day, values, wickedness, Zion People | 10 Comments
It is winter and life in the mountains is GOOD!
It is with joy and thanksgiving that I express the feelings of my heart this day after having pondered the scriptures of Isaiah during the early hours of the morning and in giving thanks to our Creator above for all of the things that surround me; for our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ with all His goodness that fills the desires within me to become as He would want me to become and who prompts my heart with warm feelings of courage after reading His words. With thankfulness and the desire to serve others, which I know I must do, and in order to fulfilling my purposes and to give back for this life and this world in which I live today, I share these things.
The early morning hour awakened my mind with impressions of gratitude for life with a most wonderful family that loves me unconditionally and partnered by the most sensitive and tenderly beautiful giving woman, Suzanne, my eternal companion. She causes the man within me to fulfill the best I can become for her and our family and the desire to provide her with the comforts, blessings and true relationship she is most deserving of and should have from me. She is the one who stands by me daily, takes me in and comforts me and justifies my efforts each day with loving arms and reasoning while mending my wounds and renewing my strength after facing this world’s battles and tests. What a wonderful wife!
It makes me think about my place and position in this world of God’s great plan of life
as I challenge myself to try to become a better person in mind, body, spirit and heart and in reminding myself of the many blessings I have received and oh so many areas and ways of how I can still improve. As I review the past with the many rivers that I have forged and crossed and the tests of life that have been fought and won only after battling for those choices in which I truly believed, in picking myself up and brushing off the dust when I would fall and bruise my body and ego while trying to make those correct choices, I have peace. In tasting of the sweet success and achievements and licking the wounds of battles won while standing for truth and those values and principles that my parents taught me which had been instilled within me during my youth, I will never forget that for which I stand. With courage I covenant to myself and to my Lord to become what God would want me to become and to bless His work and His glory of which I am a part, by my actions and those choices I make.
It is then that my mind remembers the faces of oh so many friends and relationships with experiences I have had with them over time which I cannot forget who have a special place in my heart and who deserve that responsibility that I feel, to give back to so many of them who played such an important role in making me what I have now become.
To those who are reading this, I want to thank you for choosing to be here, for trusting me and my friends, and in looking and searching for the good and the best things of life and for making commitments to be a part of a better way of living by putting God and family first. We honestly have the desire to do well and make right choices and we will do it together.
Thank you for your faith in Jesus Christ and for being and remaining strong 
through this troublesome world of wickedness and for standing up for those values and principles of goodness that are offset and even destroyed by evil and conspiring men of our day and the wicked one they follow; for putting off the ‘natural man’ which is an enemy to God and in maintaining a spirit of hope, with our freedoms and faith knowing that just around the corner will be the grandest and greatest days of all when all of the evils of this world will be cast out with Satan, and Jesus shall return once again to dwell with us for a thousand years of peace and happiness. We will then become a Zion people; the happiest people that ever lived!
It will have been worth the fight in working our hardest and standing up for good, in raising a family in a loving and orderly home with a true and faithful marriage, and in remaining strong and enduring to the end when the going got tough while the trendy world laughs and point their fingers and scoffing at us for our values and righteous desires; for living during the most challenging times ever with the fullness of good and evil while trying to provide for our loved one’s needs. All who do this will be blessed for setting their lives as good examples and in recognizing their mistakes and repenting of them quickly. Truly, we will surely be rewarded for the fruits of our labors. We will have fulfilled prophecy and have become those who receive from the Lord His bounteous blessings with eternal rewards as promised. The hard times will then seem blurred as battled victories worth celebrating. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard how great will be the blessings that the Lord will provide! May we be the recipients.
We at thefamily.com hope that we can help provide for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, wisdom and many truths, helps, warnings of danger and words of caution and prevention during these troubled times ahead as well as the good times with scripture support so that you and your families can be prepared and make your appropriate choices that are in line with the Lord’s will.
We sanctify our Lord and God with all our hearts and always try to be ready always to give an answer to every man that ask us for a reason of the hope that is in us with meekness and fear. May we always remember who we are, why we are here, and where we are going during this short time we are away from our Heavenly parents and here on earth as their spiritual children having now attained a physical body as well and having human experiences.
May the Good Lord bless us all and our families with the best this world has to offer is my prayer and wish for you this day!
With love,
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Pet. 3: 15
