God, Family, and Country

My Mom recently gave a talk about "God, Family, & Country".  I want to share a good portion of her talk here.  This will give a great snapshot of the way my siblings and I were raised.  These are the quotes, teachings, and thoughts that were infused in our lives as we were growing up.  I'm so thankful!

"Do you sometimes feel concerned about your relationship with your Heavenly Father, do you wonder if you are fulfilling your responsibilities as a member of your family? Are you concerned about the economy or how you can help turn things around in our country?

When Brother Hahn and I had a young family, we had some of the same concerns. We decided that we needed to set some goals and decide what our priorities would be for our family. President Benson had a book entitled, “God, Family, and Country, our three great loyalties” He said that each of these areas is important in our lives and counseled that we devote a portion of our time to each subject.

Emil and I decided to adopt the title of his book for our family motto. We each had a testimony that President Benson was truly a prophet of God and we felt like this motto would help us achieve our goal of becoming an eternal family.

We also found that the Lord had given us resources to help us in these three areas. The first resource, The Book of Mormon, helped us in our relationship with God… and with raising our family… and in understanding our duty to our country.

Joseph Smith said that “the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man can get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

In the Ensign, Jan. 1992 in an article titled “The Keystone of our Religion” Pres. Benson said, “There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.”

President Benson taught that “the book of Mormon brings men to Christ. It also exposes the enemies of Christ, confounds false doctrines and fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day. He went on to say that God so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time”.

In a talk given in April of 1986 titled the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, President Benson said that “we have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. He said that our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, etc”.

He went on to state that “our nation will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of the God of this land, Jesus Christ, and quit building up and upholding the secret combinations which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of both previous American civilizations.”

We learned that secret combinations are the devil’s plan for helping evil men conspire to deprive men of their God-given rights to life, liberty, and property so that they can get gain and feed their lust for power.

As we tried to teach our children the gospel, we were so grateful for the counsel of our prophets to hold family home evening, family prayer, and have regular family scripture study.

We have strong testimonies that these words by Marion G. Romney are indeed true: “I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein.  The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submisssive to that counsel. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity--the pure love of Christ--will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness.”  (CR April 1960)

The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and has a great power to help us and bless us if we will study it and try to live the teachings that are contained in it.

When we were raising our children, we didn’t have a resource that you have now and that is: “ The Family, A Proclamation to the World”. I believe that it is vital that we study it, understand it, believe it, and teach it to our children so that we, and they, can defend it against the attacks that will surely come because of the Church’s stand against certain sinful practices that are a threat to the family.

Concerning our loyalty to country, Emil and I took that to mean that, “because governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society” that we needed to understand the proper and improper role of government and then join with other freedom-loving people to make our influence felt. We joined a national organization which supported the Constitution in the tradition of the founding fathers and educated people about the threats to our freedom and the U.S. Constitution. We worked with others to warn our neighbors and to write letters to our representatives, etc.

We came to understand that the proper role of government was to PROTECT our God-given rights to life, liberty, and property and that the improper role of government was to forcefully take away those rights and to redistribute people’s wealth. We learned that secret combinations exist in all nations and that the great prophet Moroni warned us, “Wherefore the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you.”

President Benson taught that those who fight for freedom must first and foremost be righteous. He also said that “Satan is anxious to neutralize the inspired counsel of the prophet and hence keep the priesthood off balance, ineffective, and inert in the fight for freedom. He does this through diverse means, including the use of perverse reasoning.

For example, he will argue, ‘There is no need to get involved in the fight for freedom--all you need to do is live the gospel.’ Of course this is a contradiction, because we cannot fully live the gospel and not be involved in the fight for freedom….How would you have reacted if during the War in Heaven someone had said to you, ‘Look, just do what is right; there is no need to get involved in the fight for free agency.’

The cause of freedom is a most basic part of our religion. Our position on freedom helped get us to this earth and it can make the difference as to whether we get back home or not.”

Because of these statements and others, we felt that it was important to understand what was happening in our government and to take an active role in influencing current events for good. We also tried to help our children to be informed by studying the Constitution and other good books as part of our morning devotional.

The Lord gave us the Constitution of this nation by the hands of wise men whom he raised up unto this very purpose. President David O. McKay said in Conference in Oct. 1939, “Next to being one in worshipping God there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.”

President Benson asked:  “Have we read the Constitution and pondered it? Are we aware of its principles? Could we defend it? Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound? The Church will not tell us how to do this, but we are admonished to do it.”

Brothers and sisters, it was a blessing for us to adopt the family motto: “God, family and country…our three great loyalties.” We used the resources that God gave us: The Book of Mormon, the teachings of the prophets, and the inspired Constitution of the United States to help us in our responsibilities. It is our testimony that our Heavenly Father will help us through the challenges that we face in our lives, that he will provide the things that we need to be successful in this life and in the life to come and that he will inspire us and give us answers to our questions and prayers through the Holy Ghost if we will strive to keep the commandments and heed the counsel of our living prophets."