Parenting Quotes - 4
"Testimony-bearing is not restricted to the chapel. The family room can be the ideal setting for some very sensitive spiritual experiences. Happy memories are made by appointment, and parents need to plan special spiritual events to create spiritual experiences."
LeGrand R. Curtis ( "Happiness is Homemade", Ensign, November 1990, page 13)
"What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity."
Jean Paul Richter
"Parents have the glorious opportunity of being the most powerful influence, above and beyond any other, on the new lives that bless their homes."
"Proclaim My Gospel From Land to Land"
"The best way to protect your children from the wrong messages is to see that they are exposed to the right ones."
Doug Fields
Your child will never grow too old to hear you say, "I Love You".
Dr. Jan Dargatz
"The late J. Edgar Hoover said that if fathers and mothers would take their children to Sunday School and church regularly, they could strike a felling blow against the forces that contribute to juvenile delinquency."
"Thou Mayest Choose for Thyself," Ensign, July 1973, 7
"It is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings."
Ann Landers
"We must build a consistent, planned, program of introducing the principles of the gospel... It rests solely upon the shoulders of parents to establish a gospel foundation in the lives of their children. Of course, there are other organizations that can help, but we want to be certain that we know what they are learning, and that we take the time and have the patience to determine carefully, and in a planned way, that they are growing up with a sure foundation on which to build their lives."
"Train Up A Child" (Ensign, Nov. 1988, p. 74)
"Teach your children why you believe what you believe. Don't ask them to accept your beliefs blindly. Don't be afraid to teach them to think for themselves. God's Word can withstand the test."
Dr. Paul Meler
"One of the greatest favors parents can do for their children is to teach them to work. Much has been said over the years about children and monthly allowances, and opinions and recommendations vary greatly. I'm from the "old school." I believe that children should earn their money needs through service and appropriate chores. I think it is unfortunate for a child to grow up in a home where the seed is planted in the child's mind that there is a family money tree that automatically drops "green stuff" once a week or once a month.
Marvin J. Ashton - July 1975 Ensign "One For the Money"
"We never give our children a lift when we give them a free ride."
Marvin J. Ashton, "The Time Is Now," Ensign, May 1975, 85
"It is the parents' duty to intervene when they see wrong choices being made. That doesn't mean parents take from children the precious gift of agency. Because agency is a God-given gift, ultimately the choice of what they will do, how they will behave, and what they will believe will always be theirs. But as parents we need to make sure they understand appropriate behavior and the consequences to them if they pursue their wrongful course."
M. Russell Ballard "Like a Flame Unquenchable," Ensign, May 1999, p. 87
"To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself."
Josh Billings - Reader's Digest
"Be sure to take out some love insurance for your children. It is certain to pay countless dividends."
Daryl V. Hoole, Ensign, January, 1971
"So frequently we mistakenly believe that our children need more things, when in reality their silent pleadings are simply for more of our time."
President Thomas S. Monson - Ensign, May 1994, p. 62
"We must work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because, in fact, everything in life does count on it. If we fail in our homes, we fail in our lives. . . . The consequences of your leadership in your home will be eternal and everlasting."
Gordon B. Hinckley, "Each a Better Person," Ensign, Nov. 2002, 100
"The beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression more readily taken."
Plato
"Sometimes the decision of a child or a grandchild will break your heart. Sometimes expectations won't immediately be met. Every mother and father worries about that. Even that beloved and wonderfully successful parent President Joseph F. Smith pled, 'Oh! God, let me not lose my own.' That is every parent's cry, and in it is something of every parent's fear. But no one has failed who keeps trying and keeps praying. You have every right to receive encouragement and to know in the end your children will call your name blessed, just like those generations of foremothers before you who hoped your same hopes and felt your same fears."
Jeffrey R. Holland, "Because She Is a Mother," General Conference, April 1997
"Teach your children when they are young and small, and never quit. As long as they are in your home, let them be your primary interest."
President Gordon B. Hinckley - Ensign, Nov. 2000, 98
"It is our solemn duty, our precious privilege—even our sacred opportunity—to welcome to our homes and to our hearts the children who grace our lives."
President Thomas S. Monson - Ensign, June 2000, 2
"The parent who procrastinates the pursuit of his responsibility as a teacher may, in years to come, gain bitter insight into Whittier's expression: "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, / The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"
John Greenleaf Whittier, "Maud Muller," The Complete Poetical Works of Whittier (1892), 48
Quoted by President Thomas S. Monson, October 1997, General Conference
"Sound travels slowly. Sometimes the things you say when your kids are teenagers don't reach them till they're in their 30s."
"Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family."
George Bernard Shaw
"Parents should be partners to cherish and protect one another, knowing that the aim of the adversary is to destroy the integrity of the family."
Elder Russell M. Nelson - Ensign, May 1989, 69
"Both parents occupy a leading role in teaching their children, and both must counsel together and support one another."
Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, June 1985, 9
"Here is an example of a spiritual and a temporal evaluation of an everyday experience. In a BYU devotional several years ago, Elder Loren C. Dunn described how his father, a busy stake president in Tooele, gave his two young sons the responsibility of raising cows on the family farm. He gave the boys large latitude in what they could do, and they made some mistakes. These were observed by an alert neighbor, who complained to their father about what the young cow-raisers were doing. 'Jim, you don't understand,' President Dunn replied. 'You see, I'm raising boys, not cows.' ("Our Spiritual Heritage," in Brigham Young University 1981-82 Fireside and Devotional Speeches, Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1982, p. 138.)
"What a marvelous insight! What an example for parents who are inclined to view and evaluate their children's performance solely in temporal terms."
Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, Nov 1985, 61
Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones. Now, love them, take care of them. Fathers, control your tempers, now and in all the years to come. Mothers, control your voices, keep them down. Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones, welcome them into your homes and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried. Never forget that. -
President Gordon B. Hinckley, From Salt Lake University 3rd Stake conference, Nov. 3, 1996 (published in the Church News March 1, 1997)