The doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints centers on the family, taught President Dallin H. Oaks, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, during his Sunday afternoon concluding remarks of October 2025 general conference.
“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” which was announced 30 years ago in the October 1995 general conference, declares that “the family is ordained of God” and “is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” It also declares that “God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.”
The Church is a family-centered church, President Oaks said. “Our relationship to God and the purpose of our mortal life are explained in terms of the family.”
Heavenly Father’s plan for the benefit of His spirit children was first taught in the council of an eternal family, President Oaks said, referring to the premortal council in heaven where all of God’s children learned together as spirits. This plan is implemented through mortal families, and its intended destiny is exaltation in eternal families.
But there is opposition. In the United States, for example, the proportion of households headed by married couples has declined, as has the birth rate. While marriages and birth rates of Church members are more positive, they also have declined significantly.
“It is vital that Latter-day Saints do not lose their understanding of the purpose of marriage and the value of children. That is the future for which we strive,” President Oaks said. Latter-day Saint values and practices should improve, not follow the rest of the world’s trends.
Parental influences
When President Oaks was a boy, he lived on his grandparents’ farm — and almost all that happened during the day was under the direction of the family. No electronics or television distracted from family activities. But today, few people experience consistent family-centered activities. It is easy for youth to treat their home as a boarding house where they sleep and sometimes eat, but without much parental direction of their activities.
Parental influences are also diluted by current ways of earning a living. In the past, families were unified as they worked and struggled together toward a common goal — such as taming the wilderness or earning a living.
“The family was an organized and conducted unit of economic production,” President Oaks said. “Today, most families are units of economic consumption, which does not require a high degree of family organization and cooperation.”
But, as parental influences diminish, “Latter-day Saints still have a God-given responsibility to teach their children to prepare for our family destiny in eternity,” President Oaks said, referencing Doctrine and Covenants 68:25. And many do this when their families are not traditional. “Divorce, death and separation are realities. I experienced that in the family in which I was raised.”
When President Oaks was 7 years old, his father died, so he and his younger brother and sister were raised by their widowed mother.
“In the most difficult of situations, she pressed on. She was alone and broken, but her powerful teaching of the doctrine of the restored Church guided us,” he said.
She prayed for heavenly help in raising her children, and she was blessed. “We were raised in a happy home in which our deceased father was always a reality. She taught us that we had a father and she had a husband and we would always be a family because of their temple marriage. Our father was just away temporarily because the Lord had called him to a different work.”
He said he knows that many other families are not so happy, “but every single mother can teach of the love of a Heavenly Father and the eventual blessings of a temple marriage. You too can do this,” President Oaks said. “Heavenly Father’s plan assures this possibility for everyone.”
Lehi promised his son Jacob that God “shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain” (2 Nephi 2:2). That applies to every Latter-day Saint family, whether complete or currently incomplete, President Oaks said. “We are a family Church.”
The family circle
President Oaks was living on the Payson, Utah, farm of his maternal grandfather when the latter gave him the news that his father had died.
“I ran into the bedroom and knelt beside the bed crying my heart out. Grandpa followed me and went to his knees beside me and said, ‘I will be your father,’” President Oaks remembered. “That tender promise is a powerful example of what grandparents can do to fill in the gaps when families lose or are missing a member.”
Parents, whether single or married, and others like grandparents who fill that role for children, are the master teachers for children — and their most effective teaching is by example, President Oaks said.
“The family circle is the ideal place to demonstrate and learn eternal values such as the importance of marriage and children, the purpose of life and the true source of joy,” he said. “It is also the best place to learn other essential lessons of life, such as kindness, forgiveness, self-control and the value of education and honest work.”
Many Church members have family members who are not embracing gospel values and expectations at this time. They need love and patience, President Oaks said. Remember that repentance and spiritual growth can continue in the spirit world, and the sins and shortcomings from mortality can be forgiven through repentance because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
“Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is our ultimate role model. We will be blessed if we model our lives after His teachings and self-sacrifice,” President Oaks said. Following Christ and giving of oneself in service to one another is the best remedy for selfishness and individualism that seem to be so common today.
The duties of parents
Parents have a duty to teach their children gospel principles and practical knowledge.
“Families unite when they do meaningful things together,” such as family gardens, happy family experiences, camping, sports, activities and other recreation. Family reunions can help individuals remember their ancestors and lead them to serve in the temple.
Families can educate children in the basic skills of living, including working in the yard and home, and learning languages. Parents, grandparents or members of the extended family can help teach these subjects. “Families flourish when they learn as a group and counsel together on all matters of concern to the family and its members.”
For those who think they don’t have any time for this, they can find time by turning technology off and spending time with their children.
“Great blessings come to families if they pray together,” kneeling to pray over common concerns. Families are also blessed as they worship together, and family bonds are strengthened by family stories, creating traditions and sharing sacred experiences.
Jesus Christ invites all to follow the covenant path that leads to “a heavenly family reunion,” President Oaks said. The sealing powers of the priesthood exercised in temples of the Lord throughout the world bring families together for eternity.
“This is real,” President Oaks concluded. “Let us be part of it.”
