President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, opened the April 2025 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by echoing the simple invitation of the Savior: “Become as little children.”
As the first speaker of the first session on Saturday morning, April 5, President Holland related how Jesus called a little child to Himself, telling His apostles, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-4).
“So, what is it that we are to see in the virtues of life’s junior varsity?” President Holland asked, referring to children. What was it that brought Christ to tears and caused Him to call down heavenly fire and protective angels to surround the Nephite children, commanding the adults to “behold [their] little ones” (3 Nephi 17:23)?
Said President Holland, “I have to think it had something to do with their purity and their innocence, their inborn humility and what it could bring to our lives if we retain it.”
While there are some childish inclinations not to be encouraged, children often demonstrate faith, loyalty, trust, courage and honor, he said.
President Holland was one of several leaders during the 195th Annual General Conference who spoke on the need to protect, nurture, emulate and teach children and youth.
During his address in the Saturday afternoon session, fellow Apostle Elder Neil L. Andersen affirmed the sanctity of life.
“Life is a most precious part of our Father’s perfect plan, and by His decree we cherish and preserve life; and we choose the continuation of life once conceived,” he said.
Nurturing and protecting life is not a political position. “It is a moral law confirmed by the Lord through His prophets,” Elder Andersen said.
In that same session, Young Men General President Steven J. Lund spoke of the impact that being ordained as an Aaronic Priesthood holder can have on a young boy.
Each January, hands are laid on the heads of about 100,000 young men, said President Lund, whose service as a general officer concludes Aug. 1.
To watch young men be ordained as holders of the Aaronic Priesthood is to be a “witness to the disruption of the very patterns of this world by godly authority spreading across the earth,” he said.
These ordinations launch Latter-day Saint young men into lifetimes of service “as they will find themselves in consequential times and places where their presence and prayers and powers of the priesthood of God that they hold will profoundly matter.”
In her address during the Saturday evening session, Sister Amy A. Wright, first counselor in the Primary general presidency, testified of the need to help children “believe in Jesus Christ, belong to Jesus Christ and His Church through covenant, and strive to become like Jesus Christ.”
After His Resurrection, the Savior invited the multitude to feel the prints of the nails in His hands and feet, one by one. “And did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he” (3 Nephi 11:14-15).
Sister Wright invited listeners to ponder what that experience could look like in the life of young children. “Do [children] hear testimonies of Jesus Christ and His gospel? Do they see reverential, worshipful images of His ministry and godhood? Do they feel and recognize the Holy Ghost testifying of His reality and divinity? Do they know of His message and mission?”
If Latter-day Saints are not testifying of the Savior’s premortal godhood, His divine mission, and His prison-bursting Resurrection in their homes and in every single meeting, “then our messages of love, service, honesty, humility, gratitude, and compassion can become nothing more than a jaunty pep talk of thoughtful living. Without Jesus Christ there is no power to change, no purpose to aspire to and no reconciliation of the travails of life,” Sister Wright said.
If Latter-day Saints become casual in their discipleship of Jesus Christ, “it could be catastrophic for our children,” Sister Wright warned, adding, “This Jesus should not be a fictional Jesus, or a simplistic Jesus, or a bodiless Jesus, or a casual Jesus, or an unknown Jesus, but a glorified, omnipotent, resurrected, exalted, worshipful, powerful, Only Begotten Son of God, who is mighty to save.“
