181st Annual General Conference — Church News coverage
Two of the vital pillars that sustain Father in Heaven's plan of happiness are marriage and the family, said Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve.
"Their lofty significance is underscored by Satan's relentless efforts to splinter the family and to undermine the significance of temple ordinances, which bind the family together for eternity," he said. "The temple sealing has greater meaning as life unfolds. It will help you draw ever closer together and find greater joy and fulfillment in mortality."
Speaking Sunday afternoon, Elder Scott said "supernal joys" come from family life.
"If you are a young man of appropriate age and are not married, don't waste time in idle pursuits. Get on with life and focus on getting married. Don't just coast through this period of life," he said. "Young men, serve a worthy mission. Then make your highest priority finding a worthy eternal companion....If you have found someone, you can form an extraordinarily wonderful courtship and marriage and be very, very happy eternally by staying within the bounds of worthiness the Lord has established.
"If you are married, are you faithful to your spouse mentally as well as physically? Are you loyal to your marriage covenants by never engaging in conversation with another person that you wouldn't want your spouse to overhear. Are you kind and supportive of your spouse and children?"
Elder Scott asked husbands to lead out in family activities such as scripture study, family prayer and family home evening.
"Do you tell your wife often how very much you love her? It will bring her great happiness. ... Express gratitude for what your spouse does for you."
Pure love, he said, is an incomparable, potent power for good. "Righteous love is the foundation of a successful marriage. It is the primary cause of contented, well-developed children."
It is so rewarding to be married, Elder Scott continued.
"Marriage is wonderful. In time you begin to think alike and have the same ideas and impressions. You have times when you are extremely happy, times of testing, and times of trial, but the Lord guides you through all of those growth experiences together."
Elder Scott said marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered. "I think one of the reasons that we are counseled to get married early in life is to avoid developing inappropriate character traits that are hard to change," he said. "I feel sorry for any man who hasn't yet made the choice to seek an eternal companion and my heart weeps for the sisters who haven't had the opportunity to marry."
Elder Scott closed by saying he knows "what it is to love a daughter of Father in Heaven who with grace and devotion lived with full feminine splendor of her righteous womanhood. I am confident that when in our future, I see her again beyond the veil, we will recognize that we have become even more deeply in love. We will appreciate each other even more, having spent this time separated by the veil."
