No gospel precept resonated
with greater importance in the heart of President
Joseph Fielding Smith than that of the sanctity
of the home and family. His messages to the
members of the Church were replete with counsel
to parents and children. A priority in his
ministry was to strengthen an already revealed institution,
that of family home evening. President Smith emphasized
that Monday evening should be set aside as a
sacred time in which families, uninterrupted by the affairs
of the Church or the world, could gather together
to be instructed in gospel principles. Under his direction,
no Church meetings were to be scheduled or
held on Monday evening. In general conference of April
1970, he reminded the Saints-- We plead with
fathers and mothers to teach personal purity
by precept and example and to counsel with their
children in all such things. We ask parents to set an
example of righteousness in their own lives and to gather
their children around them and teach them the gospel in
their family home evenings and at other times. [MUSIC PLAYING]
