[Given by Chris Juchau at Stake Conference, April 2017.]

In her wonderful talk, “Teaching the Doctrine of the Family,” Sister Julie Beck said that the three great “Pillars of Eternity” were put in place in support of eternal families.  She said,

The Creation of the earth provided a place where families could live. God created a man and a woman who were the two essential halves of a family. It was part of Heavenly Father’s plan that Adam and Eve be sealed and form an eternal family.

The Fall provided a way for the family to grow. Adam and Eve were family leaders who chose to have a mortal experience. The Fall made it possible for them to have sons and daughters.

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.

When we speak of qualifying for the blessings of eternal life, we mean qualifying for the blessings of eternal families.

Families are, of course, wonderful.  But, as we all know, the fact that family relationships exist does not mean that there is nothing but constant goodness and harmony inside those relationships.  Being married in the temple certainly does not, by itself, make for a celestial marriage.  Nor does going to Church together every Sunday guarantee that Dad and Mom will be kind to each other at home, that youth will be honest with their parents, or that brothers and sisters will be loving and supportive of one another.

Yet, regardless of our current family situation—whether in a mostly happy family or a too-frequently unhappy family; whether divorced or not yet married—we must realize that Sister Beck is teaching true doctrine:  each of us living in and contributing toward a successful eternal family is the ultimate goal and has been the purpose of our Heavenly Father’s plan for us from the beginning.  He wants us not only to return to Him, but to return to live as He lives.  That means men becoming great husbands, co-leaders, and fathers.  And it means women becoming great wives, co-leaders, and mothers.

This morning we answered questions submitted by youth.  Among the many excellent questions submitted, this one was one of my favorites:  “How can I prepare to be a good wife and mother?”  It would be good if every young woman asked herself that question frequently—and if every young man frequently asked himself how he can prepare to become a world-class husband and father.

To the youth listening today, I repeat:  your becoming great partners in a marriage and great parents to your children is the destiny God desires for you.  Perhaps in this life, but certainly in eternity, nothing that I know of will bring you greater joy and satisfaction.  For me, I am nowhere near the great husband and father that I need to become, but in addition to keeping myself aligned with God, those are, by far, my most important personal goals.

For those sisters with unfulfilled desires to marry or who have been let down in marriage, I suggest patience, faith, and ongoing preparation—and assure you that you have our support and respect.  Patience is one of those things that sounds really great until you’re the one who has to be great at it, but the alternatives are even harder.  Please do all you can to remain (or become) aspirational in this regard.

Now, how do we create harmony and goodness in our families and within our family relationships?

Let me share with you three instances of personal failure related to that question in the hopes that they will be instructive.  There are many moments in my life I feel ashamed of, but I’ll limit today’s sharing to just three.  All three of these were during my youth.

The first is a very specific moment.  I am the third of five children.  The oldest is my one brother and numbers 2, 4, and 5 are my sisters.  We didn’t fight much in our family.  My brother never fought with anyone, period, ever.  My older sister and I were probably the two feistiest of the children, with me the worst.  One evening when I was probably about 10 years old and my older sister about 13, she and I got into a fight about something.  She being three years older than I and, hence, able to easily beat me up, I knew to keep our fight to words and not to fisticuffs.

I have no idea today what we were fighting about that evening but something made us both angry and things escalated to mean words right on the edge of getting physical.  I don’t recall what she said to me but I remember at one point being so angry and wanting to lash out so badly that I considered what I knew to be the nuclear option.  I knew full well that there was one word I could use that would cut her to her very core and hurt her more than anything.  For a split-second I weighed in my mind whether I should say something so hurtful (I can remember this moment like it was five minutes ago) and to my shame I let my worst demons get the better of me.  And the moment I did, I knew it hurt her just like I expected.

To Lauri’s tremendous credit, I feel today no sense of lingering bitterness over that moment years ago and probably other moments that I don’t remember so well.  She is a tireless wife and mother with a wonderful family and a great soul.  It’s my privilege to be her brother, and I very much wish that I did not hurt her that day like I did.

The second story isn’t really a story.  It’s just more of a general bad memory—in this case, involving my two younger sisters.  When I was about 17, Michelle and Nanette were about 15 and 10.  My older brother and sister had gone off to adulthood and I was the oldest of the three kids left at home.  My life was pretty good.  I wasn’t the most popular at school or the smartest or the best athlete or anything, but I had friends, did well in school, had a good job, had a lot of fun, and generally enjoyed a very positive life.

My younger sisters—both of whom, like my older sister, were and are wonderful people—weren’t having as smooth of a time as I was.  Being 15 is hard under virtually any circumstance.  Being a 15-year-old girl certainly brings challenges I’ve never experienced.  I didn’t really know much about the challenges Michelle was facing because I wasn’t really paying attention to Michelle even though we were fairly close together in age.  I was paying even less attention, probably, to Nanette who was even further removed from me in age.

And this is the problem.  I was completely self-absorbed.  Far too focused on myself to give any thought to how my younger sisters were doing and how an older brother might have helped them.  I couldn’t have removed their challenges for them, but I believe I could have done much more to validate them and to encourage their confidence by showing genuine love and interest in them and by spending some time focused on them.  I didn’t.

Whereas my sin with my older sister was one of commission in calling her something hurtful, my sin with my younger sisters was one of omission—for failing to even show up as the older sibling they probably could have used.

The last of my three stories did not occur in a regular family setting but it is instructive nevertheless.

I was called to a mission in northern Germany.  My two months in the MTC were wonderful.  I made good friends, we worked really, really hard together.  We were anxious to be great missionaries and, after two months in the MTC learning and thinking about how to be a great missionary,… I had all the answers.

When I met my trainer in Germany, it took me no time at all to be disappointed.  This is not to my credit.

Elder Barton knew how to do two things really well.  In retrospect, he knew how to do two things exceptionally well.  He worked hard and he was obedient.  At the time, I figured those things were pretty good, but I thought that working “smarter” was a whole lot better than working “harder.”  Elder Barton and I left our apartment every morning at 9:30.  I don’t recall it ever being 9:31.  We came home every evening at 9:30.  I don’t recall it ever being 9:29.  For 11 of the 12 hours in between every day, we knocked on doors—and sometimes we ran between doors.

I thought I was so much smart.  I felt bad that I was not assigned to someone who would focus on members both active and less active—and use his teaching skills and people skills to extract golden investigators from them.  I knew everything there was to know about missionary work and I regretted my misfortune.  What an immature fool l was!  Fortunately, it only took me about a month to figure that out and grow up.

If I could assign a mission companion today to any of my children or to any youth from our stake, I would pick someone just like Elder Barton.  We did the two things that mattered most.  We worked really hard.  And we were meticulously obedient.  And the Lord blessed us.  How embarrassed I feel today to think that I thought myself smarter or better than Elder Barton.  And how grateful I am that he and the Lord taught me to grow up a little.  I cannot begin to tell you how much I love and respect Elder Barton today and how grateful I am for him.

In those three sad stories are three lessons for happiness in family life.

From my story with Lauri, it’s easy to see how a lack of self-control can damage a family relationship.

From my story with Michelle and Nanette, it’s easy to see that to be a good sibling (or spouse or parent or child), you have to show up and care and quit focusing your whole self on yourself.

From my story with Elder Barton, it’s easy to see how pride and a lack of humility can keep a person from learning and growing and from seeing clearly.  Humility and gratitude are so much better!

The Church’s “Proclamation to the World” describes with fundamental clarity the path to happiness in our family lives—and, I believe, in our personal lives.  It says:

Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of:

• faith,
• prayer,
• repentance,
• forgiveness,
• respect,
• love,
• compassion,
• work, and
• wholesome recreational activities.

In his 2007 talk titled “Divorce,” Elder Dallin Oaks said to members who are contemplating divorce, “I strongly urge you and those who advise you to face up to the reality that for most marriage problems, the remedy is not divorce but repentance. Often the cause is not incompatibility but selfishness. The first step is not separation but reformation.”

Implicit in his references to repentance and reformation is the idea that I need to focus on my repentance and reformation, not my spouse’s need for repentance and reformation.

It stands to reason that unhappiness in family life is most likely the result of departures from the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ—and that at least part of the answer lies in successfully exercising the control that I can exercise over my own contributions to:

• Faith
• Prayer
• Repentance
• Forgiveness
• Respect
• Love
• Compassion
• Work, and
• Wholesome recreational activities.

I should not have to say but will also mention…  Our doctrine is that men and women are equals.  A man’s priesthood office gives him the responsibility to serve his wife, not the right to exercise authority over her in any regard.

On this Easter Sunday, let us see clearly the connection between the Doctrine of the Family and the Savior.  He atoned for our sins that we might gain the joy that comes to celestial marriages and celestial families.  Our achieving that goal rests upon our placing Him and His gospel at the center of our lives.  Actually achieving celestial marriages and celestial families depends on each of us acquiring His attributes and in treating each other the way He would and does.   Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.