Editor’s note: To support personal and family gospel learning, the Church News is publishing articles on messages from October 2025 general conference. It is recommended to listen to or read the full address in addition to reviewing these resources.
About this talk
- “The Family Proclamation — Words From God”
- Elder Ronald A. Rasband | Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
- Saturday afternoon session of October 2025 general conference.
- Theme: God provided “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” to help guide His children home to Him.
Read the full message here.
Read a summary of Elder Rasband’s message here.
Outline
- October 2025 general conference marked the 30th anniversary of the announcement of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” Each person belongs to a family and is a spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents.
- When Elder Rasband was called as an Apostle in 2015, he was advised to teach the proclamation “like you own it.” He has since testified of it around the world. “The proclamation has a divine origin, so we must treat it with the reverence deserving words from God.”
- As the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1994 discussed how society and governments were pulling away from God’s laws for family, marriage and gender, they determined to prepare an official proclamation summarizing the Church’s position on the family. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley presented it the following year during the general Relief Society meeting.
- The proclamation is a call to live in mortality mindful of the eternal future. When it was announced, the proclamation did not align with the views of many in the world, and it does not now. As President Hinckley stated, the proclamation is doctrine, and its principles are “perfectly in step” with the Lord’s covenant path.
- For those with concerns about the proclamation, turn to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and feel Their love. Do not be drawn off by the adversary in these challenging times.
- The proclamation teaches that parents have a sacred duty “to rear their children in love and righteousness.” Happiness in family life comes when following the teachings of Jesus Christ, including faith, prayer, repentance and forgiveness.
- The proclamation also teaches about the roles of fathers and mothers in presiding and nurturing, respectively. “God has given men and women different but equal and essential roles that complement each other.” Elder Rasband and his wife have learned to work better at being equal partners.
- Heavenly Father has provided the proclamation “to help guide us home to Him, to help us learn and be filled with love, strength, purpose and eternal understanding.”
Reflection questions
In what ways was “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” created and introduced by “divine design”?
How does learning about the background of the proclamation shape your perception and understanding of it?
Elder Rasband taught that Heavenly Father provided the proclamation to help guide His children home to Him. How does the proclamation guide us home?
What is Elder Rasband’s counsel to those who have concerns with the proclamation? How can we help those in our congregations and families who have concerns?
What did you learn from Elder Rasband’s story about him and his wife learning to work better at being equal partners? What does being an “equal partner” mean to you?
Speaker quotes
- “The proclamation on the family is, as President Hinckley stated, doctrine, my dear brothers and sisters. The principles are not out of step but perfectly in step with the ways of the Lord and His covenant path. The teachings of the proclamation were revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ to His Apostles then and now. This is His Church; He has established the truths by which we live.”
- “We read in the proclamation, ‘Fathers are to preside … in love and righteousness,’ and ‘mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.’ Preside does not mean dominate, and nurture does not mean a secondary role. God has given men and women different but equal and essential roles that complement each other.”
- “When we live with our eyes single to the glory of God, we respect one another and support one another. Those divine patterns of righteousness lead to stability in our individual lives, our families and society.”
Reference scriptures
- “What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”
- “And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.”
- “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Invitations and promises
- “The proclamation states, ‘The family is ordained of God.’ I love the clarity of that statement. The proclamation is a call for us to live in mortality ever mindful of the divinity within us and the eternal future that lies before us.”
- “Some of you may reflect on the proclamation and say, ‘This isn’t working for me.’ ‘It seems insensitive.’ ‘My family doesn’t look like that.’ ‘I don’t fit.’ For those with concerns, know that you are a child of heavenly parents, part of your Heavenly Father’s family. No one knows you better or cares more deeply about you than He does. Turn to Him; pour out your heart to Him; trust Him and His promises.”
- “Our Father in Heaven has provided the proclamation on the family to help guide us home to Him, to help us learn and be filled with love, strength, purpose, and eternal understanding. With all my soul, I plead with you to live close to Him and His Beloved Son. I promise as you do so, the Spirit will inspire and guide you and help you feel in your heart Their promised peace that ‘passeth all understanding’ (Philippians 4:7).”
Stories
- Elder Rasband gave insight into the background of how and when the proclamation came to be, beginning in a discussion in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1994. Days before the general Relief Society meeting on Sept. 23, 1995, where President Gordon B. Hinckley introduced the proclamation, he and his counselors in the First Presidency met with the Relief Society general presidency and talked about families.
- Elder Rasband and his wife learned to work better at being equal partners. One day he decided to make an important decision without consulting her, and his action put her in a very difficult situation. “We have pretty much been on the same page ever since.”
From the footnotes
- 5. This was not the first official proclamation of the Church. Previous to the 1995 “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” were proclamations in Church history in 1841, 1845, 1865 and 1980. The latest proclamation was given in 2020: “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World.”
- 13. In the October 1976 general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball cited an American author who observed, “Throughout history, nations have been able to survive a multiplicity of diseases, invasions, famines, earthquakes, epidemics, depressions, but they have never been able to survive the disintegration of the family” (in “A Report and a Challenge,” Ensign, November 1976, pp. 7–8).
- 9. See Elaine L. Jack, “Relief Society: A Balm in Gilead,” Ensign, November 1995, p. 92. In her remarks, President Jack taught: “Families bring us our greatest joys and sometimes our most wrenching heartaches. Families provide a learning environment, a schoolroom from which we never graduate but can always learn. In our families we learn to appreciate the spiritual peace that comes from applying the principles of charity, of patience, sharing, integrity, kindness, generosity, self-control and service. These are more than family values, sisters; these are the Lord’s way of life.” Elder Dallin H. Oaks, chair of the Priesthood Executive Council at the time, also attended the meeting.
Additional resources
- Related image: “Family Life”
- Related video: “What Is the Purpose of Family?”
- Related hymn: No. 301, “I Am a Child of God”
Recent conference talks on family
- President Dallin H. Oaks: “The Family-Centered Gospel of Jesus Christ” (October 2025)
- Elder Hans T. Boom: “True to the Faith That Our Parents Have Cherished” (April 2025)
- Sister Tamara W. Runia: “Seeing God’s Family Through the Overview Lens” (October 2023)
Who is Elder Rasband?
- Elder Ronald A. Rasband was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Oct. 3, 2015. Between his call as a General Authority Seventy in 2000 and serving in the Presidency of the Seventy in 2005, he served in the Temple Department first as an assistant executive director and then as executive director in 2004.
