GEMS-Family: Parents Have a Sacred Trust to Raise Heavenly Father’s Children

Parents Have a Sacred Trust to Raise Heavenly Father’s Children

“Every human being is a spirit child of God and lived with Heavenly
Father before coming to earth. He entrusts his spirit children to earthly
parents who provide a mortal body for them through the miracle of physical
birth and gives to parents the sacred opportunity and responsibility to
love, protect, teach, and to bring them up in light and truth so they may
one day, through the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ, return to
our Father’s presence.

“These precious souls come to us in
purity and innocence. As parents, we assume an immense responsibility for
their care and well-being. Parents share this sacred trust with
brothers and sisters, grandparents, teachers, neighbors, and all who touch
the lives and impress or influence the souls of these precious children.
King Benjamin admonished parents many years ago, ‘But ye will teach
them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love
one another, and to serve one another.’ (Mosiah 4:15.)”

Topics: parents, children, teaching

( M. Russell Ballard, “Teach the Children,” Ensign, May 1991, 78)