This life is not given to us as a pastime. There was a solemn purpose in our creation, in the life that God has given to us. Let us study what that purpose is, that we may progress and obtain eternal life. (The Teachings of George Albert Smith, 130; see 17)This goes to the accompaniment of other prophets: "The whole object of the creation of this world is to exalt the intelligences that are placed upon it, that they may live, endure, and increase for ever and ever" (The Best of Brigham Young, 53). "You are sent to this earth, not to ride merry-go-rounds, airplanes, automobiles, and have what the Lord calls ‘fun.’ You are sent to this world with a very serious purpose. You are sent to school, for that matter, to begin as a human infant and grow to unbelievable proportions in wisdom, judgment, knowledge, and power" (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 31). Something I would likely not use in a class setting is a thought I heard Elder Bednar express at a fireside in Austin, Texas in 2004, shortly after I’d informed a potential employer (desperate though my need was at the time) that "I’d object to captioning for NC-17 and R films." He reminded us that "Satan’s trap is the notion that you’re here to be entertained." Thus the tone was set for a far more applicable study than a mere recitation of what was created on which day. The premortal council is past, exaltation remains to be seen; of importance to us is the end to which the earth was created, and how to successfully navigate our own experiences while here.
Many years ago, the first time I lived in Provo, I stood with a group of onlookers to a soccer game, with which I was exceedingly bored. One choice lady there mercifully distracted me with some conversation leading to the remark that she was putting pressure on me. I responded that this was not necessarily a bad thing, and somehow drew the conclusion shared by both President Howard W. Hunter and Elder Bruce D. Porter about gravity’s constant and beneficial opposition. My copy of Elder Porter’s book containing that thought was signed, thanks to our having his wonderful son in our ward, whom I have continued to address as "President Porter." It was Elder Porter who first said (at a fireside I attended around that time) that "nerds make the best husbands." One of my Facebook friends incorrectly attributes this saying to a mutual friend. Provenance, in history and in doctrine, is one of my chief concerns in life. It lies at the heart of discernment, as it is the key to laying hold of principles of correct origin and detecting deception. I desire truth direct from the source, Comforter, or those authorized thereby.
At any rate, when we finally got in the car to head home, I wound up asking this woman what she planned to do in life. With breathtaking immediacy and clarity she replied that she’d like to find a righteous husband, get married, and have a family, but if not she would go on and get her Master’s degree. You’d be amazed how far and wide I’d have to search to hear what is, to me, among the best of all possible answers. Then again, it’s not exactly like this is a common topic of conversation, yet there was something refreshing in how at the forefront of her feelings lay these goals...in an articulate, calm, and worthy fashion. She cut right through the fluff to see things as they really are, and in so doing was very promising as for what they will be. (No, I never dated her.) This cut sharp contrast with other ladies who mocked the concept of actively seeking marriage, as if it would mean that they were only in Provo for their "MRS" degree. One such woman announced in my presence that it was too awkward dating men she didn’t already know, and that it was nice to have grown up around someone. I retorted that she wouldn’t have any more opportunities for that unless, of course, she was still growing up. (She was also overly fixated on the muscular type.) Just as I predicted, she wound up marrying a nerdy newcomer to her life.
Ah, how noble are those with an eye single to the glory of God, who can cease from "light speeches, from all laughter, from . . . lustful desires, from . . . pride and light-mindedness, and from all . . . wicked doings" (D&C 88:121; see Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 3:303 for an explanation). I dispute one contention that the Puritans’ downfall was making everything sacred. Rather, they did not have a correct understanding of what God would have them do. The fatal flaw of our time is a near total absence of reverence. (See, for example, Section E of my June 25, 2008 blog entry—along with Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 1:14.) Elder D. Todd Christofferson has given an excellent talk on the matter, only printed partially elsewhere:
I am afraid that many of my generation have been remiss in transmitting to your generation a feeling for sacred things and an understanding of how to respect them. . . . The importance of having a sense of the sacred is simply this—if one does not appreciate holy things, he will lose them. Absent a feeling of reverence, he will grow increasingly casual in attitude and lax in conduct. . . . Rather than drifting into carelessness, may your life be one of increasing exactness in obedience. I hope you will think and feel and dress and act in ways that show reverence and respect for sacred things, sacred places, sacred occasions. (Brigham Young University 2004-2005 Speeches, 219, 235-236)In case you thought I was overemphasizing the virtue, which I feel was reflected in the woman’s life planning as offered heretofore:
The greatest manifestation of spirituality is reverence; indeed, reverence is spirituality. Reverence is profound respect mingled with love. . . . Reverence is the fundamental virtue in religion. . . . If there were more reverence in human hearts, there would be less room for sin and sorrow, and there would be increased capacity for joy and gladness. . . . Reverence for God and sacred things is the chief characteristic of a great soul. Little men may succeed, but without reverence and the desire to serve others, they can never be great. (The Teachings of David O. McKay, 257-259)Once the course is appropriately set, with us it should be "thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son" (Moses 5:8). "We never should presume to do anything unless we can say, ‘Father, sanction this, and crown the same with success’" (Brigham Young, JD, 18:217). To quote a segment from a 2001 writing of mine:
In Alma 34:17-41, Amulek gave excellent advice about preparing in this life to meet God hereafter. Verse 38 counsels us to "worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in." . . . 2 Nephi 32:9 recommends that we "not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul." While we cannot always prioritize so that family responsibilities and church duties come out on top, we can certainly always avoid evil. You will recall President Benson’s counsel: "If you are engaged in things where you do not feel you can pray and ask the Lord’s blessings on what you are doing, you are engaged in the wrong kind of activity."To continue the fraying thread:
As to the places we go, many years ago, President Heber J. Grant wrote this in a letter from Japan, when he was president of the Japanese Mission:
"We have no right to go near temptation," he said, "or in fact to do or say a thing that we cannot honestly ask the blessing of the Lord upon, neither to visit any place where we would be ashamed to take our sister or sweetheart." (Richard L. Evans, in Life's Directions: A Series of Fireside Addresses by the General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1962], 168-169)
All that being said, I redirect your attention to the opening quotation. Where the purpose of our existence and that of the earth combines is "Simply summarized, the earth was created that families might be. Scripture explains that a husband and wife shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation" (Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, May 2000, 85; see 1 Nephi 17:36; D&C 49:16-17). Holding those in mind, I introduce the only other woman who happens to have provided an answer strikingly similar to that of the one in Provo many years before. She, too, has done a great deal with her life while single, not to mention getting her remarkable perspective published in the Ensign.
I’m not defaming her or declaring anything other than respect. She happens to be approachable. (I have joked, perhaps too disparagingly, with a friend—after meeting a girl friend of his who, coming from a farming community background, showed sincere interest in me as a human being—that with far too many of the opposite gender, the degree to which they give you the time of day falls in a ratio of how attractive you are to them.) In quoting from correspondence I sent her in September 2008, hopefully I’m not betraying confidence (particularly as it says nothing about her reaction), but am merely using a helpful synopsis of earlier thoughts and feelings. This blog entry’s title mirrors that of the message I sent her.
Keep in mind that homosexuality is not the only perversion of the divine institution of marriage abroad in the land. Although President Hinckley and the Church Handbook of Instructions have wisely left the matter of children between couples and the Lord, I’ve felt few qualms about proclaiming the doctrines boldly to singles—for upward of a decade now—in contradiction to apostate views imbibed so freely. For instance, from an explanatory footnote in a talk seven years ago: "I’ve confined myself to the problem of prolonged honeymoons as escapes from the obligation of initiating family life. I mean no intrusion upon the sacred wedded relationship, but address singles’ declarations of intent." I’ve witnessed a troubling trend of young couples who resemble little more than playmates, with little to show after years of marriage other than Saturday morning cartoons and lots of movie nights. Procreation is an act of divinely ordained co-creation. Again, as I said in December 2002:
Considerations of health and finances seldom legitimately permit a couple to delay their first child’s entry to the world. [For some strong sentiments, see Joseph Fielding Smith, Take Heed to Yourselves! [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1966], 407-409; TSWK, 307-308; TETB, 542-543; TGeAS, 117-119.] . . .It behooves us to continually develop "a love for and a desire for children." [THBL, 239. See TGBH, 52, 418, 421-422.] Could we safely ignore the "prime purpose" [See THBL, 238-239] of marriage?What is generally lacking is desire, not capacity, though every couple is free to arrive at the conclusions suited to their situation. And, to be sure, the woman is to be given first position of respect in such decisions. When Latter-day Saints make covenants at the altar, directly pertaining thereto, and then remain deliberately childless, though, I recall Brigham Young’s righteous indignation: "I feel sometimes like lecturing men and women severely, who enter into covenants without realizing the nature of the covenants they make, and who use little or no effort to fulfil them" (JD, 3:332). (This is something that none can assume unless it is given away by their own attitude, after marriage.) What ever happened to this notion? "Every true Latter-day Saint wants just as many children as he can possibly have" (Heber J. Grant, LEJ, 24:607; see Discourses of Brigham Young, 197 and Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, 271).
Marriage offers an opportunity to share in the love and care of children, the paramount purpose of marriage. "Without children—or without believing that children are important—marriage is complete and unfulfilled." True, children take time, give trouble, and require more patience than we sometimes have. They interfere with freedom, good times, and luxury. But the children are the real purpose behind marriage. If we do not put the proper value on parenthood, we are not emotionally or socially ready for marriage. (David O. McKay, in Youth of the Noble Birthright: A Series of Fireside Addresses by the General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1960], 24)
Marriage is but the beginning bud of family life; parenthood is its flower. (Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, May 2006, 36; see James E. Talmage, Vitality of Mormonism, 216 for very similar phraseology)Er, anyway, to share my note to one woman of worthy ambition:
You needn’t worry about bringing up your dating discussion with [your roommate]. I’m never one to be overly sensitive—or very sensitive at all?—about truths or life experiences that surely relate to those truths. Even in the BYU social environment, even the best of our generation sometimes feel pressured to say one thing while thinking/feeling another. Obviously I’m not very good at that; but my point is that my family always believed in free discussion among peers. I must say that I’ve feared at times that precious few men and women still believe the reassuring things that you two expressed. . . .
Since you appreciate President Packer’s candor, I think you ought to see (perhaps, in your case, you’ve seen it) a talk I have bookmarked as "Pres. Packer gets frank."
I haven’t shared one connection with anybody. When one man asked me how to teach Isaiah, I said rather tongue-in-cheek that if he doesn’t yet see how something has fulfillment more than once in human history, he hasn’t understood the passage. My point being that the forthcoming "interpretation" is not the overruling single response to a verse...many commentators don’t know how to take it, while I know of at least one who leaves it open to such a scenario as President Packer brings to mind. Regarding the earth being "utterly wasted" at Christ’s coming without hearts turning (Section 2), we can take as premise that without the necessary family values and behaviors, no sealing/binding will be effective. Similarly, for every body of people on the other side, there’s always a description of an anchoring body on "this side of the veil." (When this side fails, the priesthood keys are taken from the earth, something we know won’t happen again, though we might come perilously close to it.) What I can easily envision with the quotation I’m about to give is a world of decreasing numbers and decreasing faith, ravaged across the whole face with those who remain killing each other (such as Mormon 2:8, for example—and this would necessitate some defensive posture, for which I believe God raises up individuals, but that’s another discussion entirely). The Proclamation on the Family tries to make this clear.----------------
In a new book "The Natural Family," Allan Carlson and Paul Mero sum up the issue: "Depopulation, not a mythical overpopulation, is the problem that nations face in the 21st century." . . .
The demographic disaster facing the planet today is not a population explosion but rather depopulation. . . .
Of interest to many of our readers is that numerous demographers note that the link between religious belief and fertility is especially strong in the LDS Church. Longman tell[s] us that "in Utah, where 69 percent of all residents are registered members of The Church (of Jesus Christ) of Latter-day Saints, fertility rates are the highest in the nation. Utah annually produces 90 children for every 1000 women of childbearing age. By comparison, Vermont—the only state to send a socialist to Congress and the first to embrace gay marriage—produces only 49."
One very interesting contrary view on the relationship between belief and birthrate comes from Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. In a recent Policy Review article, "How the West Really Lost God," Eberstadt compellingly argues that, at least in Western Europe," Christians did not stop having children and families because they became secular (rather), at least some of the time, they also became secular because they stopped having children and families." (www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/7827212.html)
Maybe it is not a coincidence that the first recorded commandment from God to humankind is to "multiply and replenish the Earth." (Joseph A. Cannon, "Is Earth’s impending ‘empty cradle’ due to selfishness?," Deseret Morning News, Sunday, July 29, 2007, G2)
----------------Here’s the catch: third world populations are still increasing. The majority of spirits are going to families in nations with crippling social grievances and many anti-American axes to grind. President George Albert Smith
said the flood was God’s great act of mercy precisely because there were no more worthy families for Him to send children to. Another catch is that the Latter-day Saint statistics are faltering as well. I well remember a
behind-closed-doors meeting with *** of the BYU English department, in which he aptly diagrammed the trouble I was having with certain liberal teachers, and the element always willing to follow them. He drew the straight line which is the Lord’s way, and below that a very sharp dropoff to nowhere (labeled the world). Between 15 and 20 degrees he drew another line that he labeled the confused members of the church. As he said, they continue to pride themselves on the fact that they’re not the world, without realizing that they’re really not the church either. Some of the more innocent in their confusion fail to realize that being a few years behind the world in a trend doesn’t mean you’re securely with the Lord’s program.
I just finished reading in the summer BYU Magazine how the rising generation is lagging in its emergence into adulthood. (It also offers mitigating explanations for what I feel is an inexcusable trend, with 18 year olds only being as mature as 13 year olds.) Hence Elder Oaks’ phrase "Peter Pan syndrome," demonstrating how it’s afflicting members. Truly, as President Joseph Fielding Smith often put it, he cannot see in light of the indisputable prophecies how this world is getting better. It is going to get much worse.
One year after I wrote that, Elder Nelson joined the counteroffensive for the family, in terms backing President Packer:
If there is any hope for the future of nations, that hope resides in the family. Our children are our wealth; our children are our strength; our children are indeed our future!
You are likely well aware of the ominous statistics. In the past fifty years, the birthrate has dropped in every nation of the world. In the nations of Europe the birthrate has dropped from the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman to the present rate of 1.5. Nations that cannot maintain their populations could even disappear, along with their culture and heritage.
Data from the United States show similar worrisome trends. In 1960, minor children formed half of the population; now they constitute only 30 percent. Predictions are that by the year 2025, single-person households will outnumber families with children.
What would happen to the future of nations if the next generation failed to appear in significant numbers? The answer is alarming! Yes, we would be poorer economically, but even poorer spiritually. (Hope in Our Hearts [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2009], 42-43)
Readers may also wish to peruse this relevant Church article. The adage holds true that God anticipates the world’s most vexing problems and sends the children whom He will call upon to wrestle with them. Are we welcoming them (and then properly training them), as Latter-day Saints? Do we think that we can delay, though our Lord doth not delay His coming, but will cut His work short in righteousness? As I also posed to my class, what of all our other brothers and sisters present with us before the foundation of the world? Where are they now? Are any of them being sent to circumstances in which they are disadvantaged from day one?
Returning to the creation of this earth, we may reflect upon certain benefices God gave Adam and Eve in Eden, namely agency, each other, and dominion. In balancing tension with the concept of stewardship, it is nonetheless true that the earth was created for man, and not man for the earth (see David O. McKay, in The Prophets Have Spoken, 3:504; The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 24-25). Elder Nelson even calls the Creation "a means to an end," coupled with the admonition to be wise stewards (Ensign, May 2000, 86; see True to the Faith, 45). While the world upsets the order of things, we acknowledge that "the earth was made for our possession" (John Taylor, Gospel Kingdom, 324), "that there might be a place provided whereon the children of our Heavenly Father could live and propagate their species, and have bodies formed for the spirits to inhabit who were the children of God" (John Taylor, in TPHS, 1:802). President Eyring brings counsel to our attention:
Some other words in the proclamation will have special meaning for us, knowing what we know about eternal life. They are in the next two paragraphs:
"The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. . .
."
Believing those words, a child could spot easily the mistakes in reasoning made by adults. For instance, apparently wise and powerful people blame poverty and famine on there being too many people in some parts of the earth or in all the earth. With great passion they argue for limiting births, as if that will produce human happiness. A child believing the proclamation will know that cannot be so, even before hearing these words from the Lord through his prophet, Joseph Smith:
"For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves." (D&C 104:17).
A child could see that Heavenly Father would not command men and women to marry and to multiply and replenish the earth if the children they invited into mortality would deplete the earth. Since there is enough and to spare, the enemy of human happiness as well as the cause of poverty and starvation is not the birth of children. It is the failure of people to do with the earth what God could teach them to do, if only they would ask and then obey, for they are agents unto themselves. . . .
Children are the inheritance of the Lord to us in this life, but also in eternity. Eternal life is not only to have forever our descendants from this life. It is also to have eternal increase. . . .
If we do not have those feelings in this life, how could our Father give them to us in the eternities? Family life here is the schoolroom in which we prepare for family life there. And to give us the opportunity for family life there was and is the purpose of creation. That is why the coming of Elijah was described this way:
"And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming." (Joseph Smith–History 1:39.) (To Draw Closer to God [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1997], 163-165; see this partial link)
Yes, many Latter-day Saints will be stunned to feel the full force of this neglected doctrinal drive. One such summary is provided by President Kimball at the very end of this page of an interesting blog site. (Another is among the Joseph Fielding Smith quotes, so forcefully damning that I will not reproduce it at this time, but it is a poignant expansion of vision, straight into the eternities, from that taught by his father, President Joseph F. Smith, contained in Gospel Doctrine, 276-279.)
Indeed, so confused are mortals at present that it has almost ceased to be a joke that in some quarters the watchcry is, "Save the trees! Kill the children!" At this point I reintroduce a phrase which one listener hastened to make their Facebook status (and I take the liberty of rewording my own statement slightly, though it could fully withstand scrutiny as originally constituted): "God is more concerned about global wickedness than He is about global warming." (See The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 171-172.)
Remember: we are at war, and the family is one of Satan's primary targets. For many, many years I have felt an almost crushing obligation in this war, akin to that "imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart . . . . that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness" (D&C 123:13), exposing them and offering the Lord's alternative. I owe the future leaders of the Church my best efforts in whatever area I may be to share the counteractive truth, so widely forgotten that it's almost frightening. May I never slacken my pace in doing what I can! I conclude with a careful chain of quotations (having omitted so many), putting all matter in its proper place in the universe.
Our young people constitute the most valuable materials in the universe. (Thomas S. Monson, Pathways to Perfection [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1973], 275)
Though you neglect some of the cattle, though you fail to produce good crops, even, study to hold your childrn’s love. . . . Our children are our most precious possessions; and the proper training of youth is the most important duty and obligation of society. (David O. McKay, CR, Oct. 1917, 58 and CR, Apr. 1928, 102)
We may desire the wealth of the world, but the most important treasures that we have are the sons and daughters that God sends to our home. . . . Those who follow the customs and habits of the world in preference to that blessing will someday find that all the things they have struggled for are wasted away like ashes, while those who have reared their families to honor God and keep his commandments will find their treasures not altogether here upon earth in mortality, . . . and those treasures will be their sons and daughters and descendants to the latest generation. . . . We comprehend that one child, born under proper conditions and reared under suitable circumstances, is worth more than all the cattle and sheep upon a thousand hills, aye, than all the treasures of the world. That is why, as Latter-day Saints doing our duty, we welcome these priceless treasures from the throne of God when they come into our homes. (The Teachings of George Albert Smith, 117)
In light of the ultimate purpose of the great plan of happiness, I believe that the ultimate treasures on earth and in heaven are our children and our posterity. (Dallin H. Oaks, With Full Purpose of Heart [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 2002], 34)
At a time when the world seems to be losing its understanding of the purpose of marriage and the value of childbearing, it is vital that Latter-day Saints have no confusion about these matters. (Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, Nov. 2005, 27)
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