Our homes are divinely ordained of God. The very foundation of the Kingdom of God, of righteousness, of all that is good and of worth is established in the home. The most important work we do will be within the walls of our own home.

We know there are very real evils of the world that seek to destroy our families and enter into our homes. In fact it is this influence of Satan that lead the prophet Joseph F. Smith to declare:

He said “There is too little religious devotion, love and fear of God in the home; too much worldliness, selfishness, indifference and lack of reverence in the family. The home is what needs reforming.” This he said in 1915 when he established FHE. What a tremendous example of a watchman on the tower who could see where we were heading and knew changes needed to be made.

Elder Joseph B. Worthlin (quorum of twelve) has told us that the Lord’s standards for building a temple apply also to building spiritual strength in our homes. D&C 88:119 (read scripture) Elder Worthlin also said “we would do well to build our homes according to this plan or they are destined to fail.” Since none of us want to fail, let’s talk about just how this scripture does apply to our homes.

A house of prayer and fasting:

I love the scripture in D&C 10:5 that says: Pray always that you may come off conqueror, and that you may conquer Satan, that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work. Our families need to gather for family prayer. We need to teach our children to pray and listen for answers. We need to offer our individual prayers. Spiritual strength and the ability to discern, to make those right choices, are blessings that come from prayer and fasting.

A House of Faith:

When I think of faith I think of Alma who prayed in faith for the repentance of his wayward son. This gives me faith to know that I too can pray in faith, for Heavenly Father to have a righteous influence over someone I love. I think of Nephi who in faith returned to Jerusalem for the brass plates, not knowing beforehand the things he should do. His example shows us, that we too can accomplish what our Heavenly Father asks of us. I have noticed, in studying the life of Nephi, that he was always willing to take those first few steps forward in faith, trusting his Heavenly Father to help him. And as he did, his Heavenly Father did provide a way to accomplish what he had been asked. So we too, can have Heavenly Fathers help if we will just take those few steps forward. Patterning our lives after men in woman in the scriptures, in our church history, in our lives around us today, can help us to have a house of faith.

A House of Learning:

Every home is a house of learning, either for good or otherwise. In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin taught us “Ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked, neither… that they transgress the laws of God and fight and quarrel one with another… but teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness, to love one another and serve one another”. Mosiah 4:14-15. Isn’t that a beautiful description of what a good LDS home can be? And also in latter-day revelation in the D&C (68:25) we are cautioned that if parents do not teach their children the principles and doctrines of the gospel when eight years old, the sin will be upon the heads of the parents. How important it is to read and teach the scriptures in our homes, and to really learn to apply them. I think that is what is meant by the word meaningful, in meaningful family home evening. Making sure the gospel has meaning in our lives. We have a son Andrew, who is ten years old, and he had a non-member friend over to play. They were running around in the back yard, playing some game, when all of a sudden they raced through the house and stormed up the stairs. It got very quiet. I thought I had better go and check and see what they were up to. When I looked in, they were setting on Andrew’s bed and he had his Book of Mormon open. He was reading a particular account of a battle between the Lamanites and Nephites. He was explaining who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. He would stop every few lines and explain the weapons and the clothing and ask his friend if he understood what was happening. When they finished reading, they put down the book and raced back outside and began to re-enact this battle in their play. I had to smile, because here was a child literally applying the scriptures in his daily life. I know that as Andrew grows, his challenges will become greater, and his life will become more complicated, but I have faith that he will continue to turn to the scriptures to help him in his life because he is learning to do so as a child. I love the quote ”If teaching were only telling, my children would be incredibly brilliant; for I’ve told them everything they need to know”. But of course we know that teaching is more than telling – it is feeling the spirit. It is understanding how it applies to our lives and using that understanding to make changes in our lives. That is how our home can become a house of glory.

Our home can become a house of order by setting standards: standards of how we will treat each other, the words we use when we speak to each other, how we will dress, what the dating standards will be. Our house can become a house of order when we set limits. Limits on what types of outside influences we will allow in our homes, and what types of worldly activities we will participate in when we are away from our homes, for we know that we bring that influence back into our homes. I was told a choice story by a young mother. Her and her husband had hired a babysitter for their little one year old boy. They were going to see a movie. This particular movie, was one that several of their friends in the Ward encouraged them to see. As they sat through the movie, they didn’t like the swearing and they found the lewd and crude innuendoes not funny. They made a choice to get up and leave. She relates that this was not an easy choice. They had looked forward to this. They paid full price for the tickets, and they were going to have to justify to their friends why this PG-13 movie wasn’t all that great. Isn’t it interesting that it’s not just our youth that have peer pressure. When they arrived home, they found their babysitter distraught because their little boy had spiked a high temperature, and was having some little seizers. Her father called their home teacher for a Priesthood blessing, and as the father was about to place his hands on the little boys head, the spirit whispered to him very plainly ”It is well that you left the movie so your heart and your mind would be pure to pronounce a Priesthood blessing of healing upon your child”. The father did pronounce a blessing of healing and within an hour the fever had dropped and the little boy was sleeping and slept through the night. It is the daily small details and decisions that we make that in a large part determine the spirituality in our home.

There is nothing in this world that is of so much value to us and our families as the knowledge of the gospel as it has been restored in these latter-days. There is nothing on the earth that can compare with a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is when we teach and instill these things in our homes we truly can have a house of God.

*Joseph F. Smith manual page 345
*May 1993 Ensign page 68