“The Family Is Ordained of God”

Brothers and sisters, these are sobering times. A few weeks ago, we witnessed the peace and purpose of university study violently disrupted by an evil act right next door in this very valley. We send our love, prayers, and warmest wishes to our friends at Utah Valley University and elsewhere. The First Presidency—prophets, seers, and revelators of our time, who are also the chairmen of the Brigham Young University Board of Trustees—have addressed the tragic act with this statement:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints condemns horrific acts of violence worldwide, including the recent assassination in Utah. We affirm our repeated calls to seek peace and unity despite our differences. Jesus Christ teaches us to love one another, that hate is wrong and that human life is sacred. We urge all to reject violence and instead build understanding. Recognizing that we are all children of God, we must treat one another with more dignity, compassion and respect. As we mourn with those who have experienced loss and care for those living in fear or conflict, we call upon people everywhere to build communities of greater kindness and love.¹

So right here, right now, commit your heart, your hands, your mind, and your strength to follow their inspired counsel. You can be “the light [that] shineth in darkness,”² the light that reflects the love of Jesus Christ for all of His children.

We Have Living Prophets Who Speak for God

In October 2022, I dedicated the Bangkok Thailand Temple. For months I had worked on the prayer of dedication. Those sacred words had been translated into twelve languages, and Sister Rasband and I thought all was ready for the important day of dedication.

The night before the dedication, I was awakened from my sleep with an unsettled, urgent feeling about the dedicatory prayer. I tried to set aside the prompting, thinking after months of work that the prayer was in place. But the Spirit would not leave me alone. I sensed certain words were missing, and by divine design they came to me by revelation. I inserted in the prayer these words near the end, and I’ve used them in every temple dedication since that time: “May we think celestial, letting Thy Spirit prevail in our lives, and strive to be peacemakers always.”

In that revelation, the Lord was reminding me to heed the words of our living prophet: “Think Celestial!”³ “Let God Prevail,”⁴ and “Peacemakers Needed.”⁵

I share that account with you because today, on the BYU campus, we all need to follow the words of the prophet. If we “think celestial,” we will reject violence, we will let the Spirit prevail, we will strive to be peacemakers, and we will “treat one another with [the] dignity, compassion and respect” due every child of God.

Now there are always going to be challenges, but the Lord gives promises and blessings and admonitions to suit what is happening. Today, September 23, 2025, is one of those days when the Lord prepared us to stand strong. On this very day 30 years ago, in 1995, President Gordon B. Hinckley stood at the pulpit in the Salt Lake Tabernacle and presented “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”⁶

He emphasized that the family proclamation holds firm to the laws of God as doctrine given through His servants

as a declaration and reaffirmation of standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family which the prophets, seers, and revelators of this church have repeatedly stated throughout its history.⁷

Following his reading of the proclamation on the family, President Hinckley stated forcefully:

The strength of any nation is rooted within the walls of its homes. We urge our people everywhere to strengthen their families in conformity with these time-honored values.⁸

All three members of our First Presidency were serving in the Quorum of the Twelve at the time the family proclamation was revealed by the Lord “line upon line, precept upon precept.”⁹

President Russell M. Nelson has explained what led up to the proclamation on the family:

One day in 1994, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spent a day in their council room in the Salt Lake Temple discussing issues surrounding the family. . . . This was not a new discussion, but that day the entire agenda revolved around this one vital topic.

The Twelve reviewed both doctrine and policies, considering those things that could not be changed. . . . Elder Nelson explained, “We could see the efforts of various communities to do away with all standards and limitations on sexual activity. We saw the confusion of genders. We could see it all coming.”¹⁰

The Church, as part of “the restoration of all things,”¹¹ has issued only six proclamations in its history. The two most recent are the family proclamation in 1995 and “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World” in 2020.¹²

I was a part of the Quorum of the Twelve’s preparation of the sixth proclamation on the Restoration. I bear my witness to all of you that the Lord chooses the time and guides the sacred process of preparing His proclamations.

President Dallin H. Oaks has said:

The proclamation on the family is a statement of eternal truth, the will of the Lord for His children who seek eternal life. It has been the basis of Church teaching and practice . . . and will continue so for the future. Consider it as such, teach it, live by it, and you will be blessed.¹³

The title of the family proclamation boldly states that the Church’s stand is made to all “the world.” In its nine paragraphs—609 words—it serves as a forthright guide for both families and governments.

My Brethren and I, and many other Church officers, have given the proclamation on the family to kings and religious and civic leaders around the world. We have spoken its truths in global conferences, in legislative bodies, and in our own Church chapels. President Henry B. Eyring spoke of it at a gathering in the Vatican in 2014, and President Nelson subsequently gave a copy to the pope in their 2020 meeting.

The family proclamation helps us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, recognize that our lives and our daily choices distinguish us from the ways and advocacy of the world all around us. We have accepted the teachings and example of our Lord and Savior to help us live righteously. We have His supernal Atonement to succor us, lift us, and draw us closer to Him and to our Father in Heaven. We have the Holy Ghost to prompt us and bring us peace, comfort, and confidence in a confusing and rebellious world. And we have living prophets who speak for God. There is both security and reassurance in the Lord’s promise: “Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”¹⁴

The proclamation on the family is that revelatory voice.

The family proclamation teaches about family, marriage, and gender and their part in the kingdom of our Father in Heaven. It states, “The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”¹⁵ This statement is the crux of the message of the family proclamation and of my message today. I personally love the proclamation on the family.

“Words Matter”

In a recent general conference, I taught that “words matter.”¹⁶ Some of the words of the family proclamation that are special for me include family, Creator, eternal destiny, children, and, farther down in the document, the word happiness.¹⁷ I want to talk about each one of these as the strength, power, and blessing the family proclamation is in our lives.

Family

Every one of us belongs to a family. We are children, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, aunts, and uncles, and some of us here today are grandparents and even great-grandparents. We have single-parent families, families of one, families with many children or none, and blended families.

The proclamation on the family states, “[Parents] have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children.”¹⁸ That is a talk all by itself. But know this, we have the pattern of love and caring from our heavenly parents. That may seem a stretch for us as mortals, but if we do all we can to claim the powers of heaven, intentional parenting “with an eye single to the glory of God”¹⁹ can be our reward.

We learn to support and care for each other in families. We celebrate birthdays, baptisms, weddings, graduations, soccer goals, training wheels coming off your bike, your first driver’s license, admittance to BYU, mission calls, temple marriages, and many other things.

Families are there for each other. I remember standing with my son-in-law in the hospital at the side of the crib of our new grandson, Paxton. We beseeched the Lord in a priesthood blessing to be with this little spirit whose chromosome abnormality indicated he would have to fight for every breath of life. I remember standing at his grave with my “Daddy arms” around these brave young parents, Dave and Shannon, who are here with us today.

We stand together, brothers and sisters, in the hard times as well as the good ones, because that’s what we as families do.

Do not discount what it says in the family proclamation: “[You are] a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents.”²⁰

That eternal connection is the constant in your life; it will never change. You belong to an eternal family, so set your course today with “faith and repentance and . . . holy works.”²¹ These are the path to exaltation with your Father in Heaven. And there, He has promised, you may have all that He has.²²

In your mortal journey, whether there is just one in your family or already a handful, decide right now to put the Lord Jesus Christ at the center of your family. Read the scriptures together. Pray together and ask the Lord to guide you in these critical years ahead. As you set your course, do not let building a career take the place of building a family.

Your situations may not fit the picture of the family circled together, clothes neatly pressed, every hair in place. As we learned these past few weeks, we can have our hopes and dreams ripped from us by circumstances that are thrust in front of us. In those situations, we need to gather courage and faith to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”²³

President Nelson has beautifully taught, “When the focus of our lives is on . . . Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives.”²⁴

So decide that in spite of what happens or does not happen, you will not be distracted from your eternal goal. You have the agency to choose your path forward. Let it be the covenant path.

Creator

Our Father is the Creator. That’s my next word from the proclamation on the family. Our Father created the plan that brought us here. And if we live according to His plan, it takes us back to our Father in Heaven’s presence. That means being faithful, repentant, diligent, worshipping in the temple, and honoring our covenants. That means focusing on eternity. 

Earlier, I mentioned President Nelson’s counsel “think celestial!” It is hard to get your mind around celestial when you’re worried about your tests tomorrow. But that’s the brilliance of BYU. Here you are spiritually strengthened at the same time you are intellectually engaged.²⁵ You have more in your backpack than books. You have an honor code, scriptures for your religion class, a temple recommend, and room for the Holy Ghost to be with you. Your classes prepare you to work in the world, but the religious focus of BYU prepares you to follow the Savior and Redeemer. Following and becoming Christlike is the real test of this life. That does not mean only on Sunday or in your free time but all the time.

Our salvation is centered in the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “I came into the world to do the will of my Father.”²⁶ The Lord’s life on the earth culminated in His profound and blessed Atonement. The incomparable sacrifice of the Savior—He “who knew no sin”²⁷—was for each one of us. He took upon Himself all our mistakes, sins, disappointments, and discontent so that if we are repentant and faithful, we can return to our Father in Heaven for eternity. In an everyday perspective, He took on Himself the pain of your very bad days brought on by a bad physics test, a broken dream, the weight of sin, or the anguish we feel for the violence that took place in the last few weeks. Jesus is always out in front. As He says in latter-day scripture, “I will go before your face.”²⁸ His loving Atonement is before us. Embrace it and be healed every day.

Eternal Destiny

Eternal destiny is next in our list of words that matter. Talks, lessons, trainings, missionary discussions, youth devotionals, classes, and exceptional curriculum here at BYU reflect the family proclamation’s emphasis on your eternal destiny.

Our life did not begin here in mortality, nor does it end at the grave. The family proclamation is clear that “in the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father.”²⁹ You are here on earth with a physical body and the agency to choose your direction in life. The scriptures tell us we all “shouted for joy”³⁰ as we chose God’s plan.

Satan and a third of our Father in Heaven’s children turned away from the promise of exaltation and are still at war, hoping to turn us as well. They seek to disrupt God’s plan by targeting the family. You might be thinking, “I am not going anywhere, Elder Rasband. I’m solid,” or “I’ve got this.” I imagine at one point even Judas Iscariot thought the same thing, and then 30 pieces of silver were dangled before him.

Everyone is vulnerable. In the days and years ahead, you are going to need the greater discernment and commitment found in the proclamation on the family “to progress toward perfection” and become “heirs of eternal life.”³¹

In a devotional in this very hall shortly after the family proclamation had been announced, President Eyring taught:

We can expect that God won’t just tell us a few interesting things about the family; he will tell us what a family ought to be and why. . . .

. . . Whoever we are, however difficult our circumstances, we can know that what our Father commands we do to qualify for the blessings of eternal life will not be beyond us.³²

Children

We are all God’s children. And that is the next word. Each of us is a “son or daughter of heavenly parents” with earthly opportunities to help build up the kingdom of God. He loves us—every one of us, every one of you—no exception. He knows us. He knows where we will thrive, what experiences in mortality will help us grow in spirituality, and in what circumstances we will bless the lives of others.

I learned this, perhaps the hard way, when I received my mission call. I hoped to be called to a mission in Germany. My dad went to Germany. My older brother went to Germany. My sister’s boyfriend—her future husband—went to Germany. I was going to Germany.

But when my call came, it read, “Dear Elder Rasband, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”—wait for it—“in the Eastern States Mission.”

I was shaken, and I knelt by my bed in prayer. I needed a testimony that I was going to the mission Heavenly Father had planned for me. Then I randomly opened my scriptures and found myself in section 100 of the Doctrine and Covenants, where I read the following verses:

Behold, and lo, I have much people in this place, in the regions round about; and an effectual door shall be opened in the regions round about in this eastern land. [That got my attention.]

Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls.³³

The Lord knew what He was doing. The Eastern States Mission was the perfect mission for me. I grew in the gospel on my mission. I set my sights on eternity. And, wonderfully, Sister Rasband and I returned years later as the mission leaders in that same area.

So, when you think the Lord is taking you off your track, calling you back to the bench, reordering the what and where of your life—when you think to say, “Really?” know this: We are the children of a Father in Heaven who has a place in His plan just for us. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding . . . , and he shall direct thy paths”³⁴ all the way home to eternity.

Happiness

The last word is happiness.

Which one of you here today doesn’t want to be happy?

The answer to finding happiness is always Jesus Christ. As it states clearly in the family proclamation: “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.”³⁵

So, what makes us happy? The proclamation on the family gives us clear direction: “Faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”³⁶ In our families and in our marriages, we learn to honor and live by these Christ-centered principles.

The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I the Lord am with you.”³⁷ You—we—could not have a better teacher, friend, companion, or mentor than Jesus Christ. Expect impressions to come into your mind about how to be more like Him, how to reshape your priorities, and how to find greater happiness.

President Hinckley taught:

If we will cling to our values, if we will build on our inheritance, if we will walk in obedience before the Lord, if we will simply live the gospel we will be blessed in a magnificent and wonderful way. We will be looked upon as a peculiar people who have found the key to a peculiar happiness.³⁸

The proclamation on the family bears these words in its title: “The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” When I was called as an apostle in 2015, I was advised that I now carried the responsibility as a member of the Council of the Twelve to teach the family proclamation. I happily bear my testimony that I know the proclamation on the family is the Lord’s plan for the eternal destiny of all His children. “What to say and how to say it”³⁹ came to prophets by revelation. It was inspired 30 years ago, and it continues to inspire us today if we are faithful to its words.

Now, dear friends, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bless you in these difficult and tumultuous times to feel encircled in the loving arms of the Savior. May you draw upon His Atonement to soothe and heal your soul. May you feel He is there for you now—today—more than ever. May you find joy in living the Lord’s commandments, in following prophetic counsel, and in the blessed guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I also bless you to strengthen your testimony of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” I testify it is the will of the Lord. May you be blessed by its eternal truths: family, Creator, eternal destiny, children, and happiness.

Brothers and sisters, my friends young and older, I bless you to know “the family is ordained of God.”⁴⁰ And He is ever with you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

© by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.