COVENANTS ANDORDINANCES 47Wayward Children Born under the
Covenant
The Prophet Joseph Smith
“When a seal is put upon the father and mother, it
secures their posterity, so that they cannot be lost,
but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their
father and mother” (in History of the Church,5:530).
President Brigham Young
“Let the father and mother, who are members of
this Church and Kingdom, take a righteous course,
and strive with all their might never to do a wrong,
but to do good all their lives; if they have one child
or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves
towards them as they should, binding them to the
Lord by their faith and prayers, I care not where those
children go, they are bound up to their parents by
an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can
separate them from their parents in eternity; they
will return again to the fountain from whence they
sprang” (in Discourses of Brigham Young,208).
First Presidency—Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon
Tanner, Marion G. Romney
“In a day when the sanctity of the home is being
invaded and where the care of children has been
regarded lightly, we, by means of the family home
evening manual, have endeavored to impress upon
the parents the importance of developing a love in
the home so that in the future, should those children
thus taught stray away, they would eventually return
again, lest they lose their place in the eternal family
circle” (Family Home Evening: Love Makes Our House
a Home,2).
Elder Boyd K. Packer
“It is not uncommon for responsible parents to lose
one of their children, for a time, to influences over
which they have no control. They agonize over
rebellious sons or daughters. They are puzzled over
why they are so helpless when they have tried so
hard to do what they should.
“It is my conviction that those wicked influences
one day will be overruled.
“‘The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never
taught a more comforting doctrine—that the eternal
sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises
made to them for valiant service in the Cause of
Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise
their posterity.... Pray for your careless and
disobedient children; hold on to them with your
faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation
of God’ (Orson F. Whitney, in Conference Report,
Apr. 1929, p. 110).
“We cannot overemphasize the value of temple
marriage, the binding ties of the sealing ordinance,
and the standards of worthiness required of them.
When parents keep the covenants they have made at
the altar of the temple, their children will be forever
bound to them” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1992,
94–95; or Ensign,May 1992, 68).Elder James E. Faust
“There are some great spiritual promises which may
help faithful parents in this church. Children of
eternal sealings may have visited upon them the
divine promises made to their valiant forebears who
nobly kept their covenants. Covenants remembered
by parents will be remembered by God. The children
may thus become the beneficiaries and inheritors of
these great covenants and promises. This is because
they are the children of the covenant” (in Conference
Report, Oct. 1990, 43; or Ensign,Nov. 1990, 35).COVENANT MARRIAGE
Elder Bruce C. Hafen
Of the Seventy
In Conference Report,
Oct. 1996, 33–36;
or Ensign,Nov. 1996,
26–28Marriage Is a Covenant, Not a Contract
Three summers ago I watched a new bride and
groom, Tracy and Tom, emerge from a sacred temple.
They laughed and held hands as family and friends
gathered to take pictures. I saw happiness and
promise in their faces as they greeted their reception
guests, who celebrated publicly the creation of a new
family. I wondered that night how long it would be
until these two faced the opposition that tests every
marriage. Only then would they discover whether
their marriage was based on a contractor a covenant.
Another bride sighed blissfully on her wedding day,
“Mom, I’m at the end of all my troubles!” “Yes,”