Children born in the
covenant
(or sealed later):
Joseph Fielding
Smith:
"(Those born under the covenant,) being heirs, they have claim upon the
blessings of the gospel beyond what those not so born are entitled to
receive.
They may receive a greater guidance, a greater protection, a greater
inspiration
from the Spirit of the Lord; and then there is no power that can take
them
away from their parents.
"Those born under the covenant, throughout all eternity, are the
children
of their parents. Nothing except the unpardonable sin, or sin
unto
death, can break this tie...parents may still feel after them and
eventually
bring them back near to them again."
From Robert Millet's book "When
a Child Wanders."
"The Holy One of Israel, who is the Mediator of the covenant, has
promised
that when a seal is placed upon a father and mother--a seal that comes
through faithfulness to their eternal covenants--their children will be
bound to them forever. Even if the children stray, the tentacles
of the everlasting covenant will feel after them and they shall, either
here or hereafter, return to the fold. We do not fully
understand
all of the implications of this marvelous promise, but we trust in the
ransoming and redeeming power of our Lord who is also our Savior."
Quoting Lorenzo
Snow:
"God has fulfilled his promises to us." President Lorenzo
Snow
explained, 'and our prospects are grand and glorious. Yes, in the next
life we will have our wives, and our sons and daughters. If we do
not get them all at once, we will have them some time, for every knee
shall
bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ. You
that are mourning about your children straying away will have your sons
and daughters. If you succeed in passing through these trials and
afflictions and receive a resurrection, you will, by the power of the
Priesthood,
work and labor, as the Son of God has, until you get all your sons and
daughters in the path of exaltation and glory. This is just as
sure
as that the sun rose this morning in yonder mountains. Therefore,
mourn not because all your sons and daughters do not follow in the path
that you have marked out to them, or give heed to your counsels.
In as much as we succeed in securing eternal glory, and stand as
saviors,
and as kings and priests to our God, we will have our posterity... God
will accomplish his purposes in the salvation of His sons and
daughters...
" (Address
delivered 6
Oct.
1893 in Collected Discourses, 3:36-65.)
A Word For
The Wayward
Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1929,
p.110
"You parents of the wilful and the wayward! Don't give
them
up. Don't cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd
will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours--long before
he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he
loves them. They have but strayed in ignorance from the Path of
Right,
and God is merciful to ignorance. Only the fulness of knowledge
brings
the fulness of accountability. Our Heavenly Father is far more
merciful,
infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the
Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite
minds can comprehend.
A Precious
Promise
"The Prophet Joseph Smith declared--and he never taught 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. Though
some
of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and
sooner
or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out
after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life
or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt
to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny
path;
but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving
and
forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience will not have
been in vain. 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
R.
Whitney, quoting the prophet Joseph Smith:
"The Prophet Joseph Smith declared--and he never taught
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. Though
some
of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and
sooner
or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out
after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life
or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay
their
debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a
thorny
path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a
loving
and forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience will not
have been in vain. 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, CR Apr. 1929, pg. 110.)
"We cannot overemphasize the value of
temple marriage, the
binding
tie 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, President
Brigham Young said:
'Let the
father and mother, who are members of this Church and
Kingdom,
take a righteous course, and strive with all their migh 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.'
(Discourse
of Brigham Young, Compiled by John A. Widtsoe, pg. 208)"
"A successful parent is one who has loved, one who has sacrificed,
and one who has cared for, taught, and ministered to the needs of a
child. If you have done all of these and your child is still wayward or
troublesome or worldly, it could well be that you are, nevertheless, a
successful parent. Perhaps there are children who have come into the
world that would challenge any set of parents under any set of
circumstances. Likewise, perhaps there are others who would bless the
lives of, and be a joy to, almost any father or mother.
" My concern today is that
there are parents who may be pronouncing
harsh judgments upon themselves and may be allowing these feelings to
destroy their lives, when in fact they have done their best and should
continue in faith. That all who are parents might find joy in their
efforts with their children is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen."
"Parents' Concern for Children" - Howard W.
Hunter - Ensign,
Nov. 1983, pp. 63-65
also in April
1995 Ensign, p. 21
"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."
James
E. Faust, “The Greatest Challenge in the World—Good Parenting,” Ensign,
Nov. 1990, 32
"Perhaps in this life we are not given to fully understand how enduring
the sealing cords of righteous parents are to their children. It
may very well be that there are more helpful sources at work than we
know.14 I believe there is a strong familial
pull as the influence of beloved ancestors continues with us from the
other side of the veil."
President
James E. Faust, "Dear are the Sheep that have Wandered", May 2003 Ensign
"This
principle has to do with the hope that Latter-day Saints have as
they honor the sacred gospel covenants they made at the marriage altar
in the temple. They and their children born or sealed in the covenant
have a right to spiritual help in this life. Even those children who
have for a time forsaken the gospel often speak of a recurring,
troubling need to return to the fold. Perhaps these desires come to
them because they are children of the covenant—children whose hearts,
planted with patriarchal promises, “shall turn to their fathers.” (D&C
2:2.)
"What hope does the gospel give to parents
of errant youth?" - Harold C. Brown, “I Have a Question,” Ensign,
Mar. 1993, 53–54
"Some parents suffer greatly because they blame themselves unduly for
having been poor parents. In this position they are likely to misapply
President David O. McKay’s wonderfully prophetic statement that “no
other success can compensate for failure in the home” (in
Conference
Report, Apr. 1964, 5). They seem to draw the unintended
implication
that since they have a child who is abusing drugs or alcohol, they must
be failures as parents; hence, no matter how hard they have tried, no
other good they have done or success they have achieved can compensate
for their parental failure at home. Because this statement was intended
to inspire parents to become or stay involved with their children, it
should not be taken to mean that parents who have indeed put great
time, effort, and sacrifice into parenting, and yet who have still not
reaped the desired rewards, have failed. A closer look at additional
counsel and doctrines may provide much needed perspective."