Families Are Central to God’s Plan
As your loving Father in Heaven, God wants you to learn and grow in life. Families play a crucial role in that growth. We believe:
- Families are a central building block of a strong society.
- Home can be a place where we feel support, safety, and love.
- Connecting with God helps create strong families where spiritual, emotional, and physical needs are met.
You Can Be with Your Family Forever
If your family is a great source of love and joy in your life, it might be hard to imagine heaven without relationships with those people. Part of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that families can be together forever.
In the Bible, Jesus gave the Twelve Apostles priesthood authority, promising that “whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). That same authority from God unites—or seals—husbands and wives and parents and children together for eternity.
Marriage ceremonies are performed in temples by this same authority with the promise that the marriages of those who are faithful to God and each other can last for eternity instead of ending at death.
We perform these same sealing ceremonies on behalf of our ancestors, who we believe can choose to accept or reject the sealings.
Family relationships and circumstances can be complicated, and we don’t know exactly how everything will work out in the next life. But we have faith in God’s perfect wisdom and love, and we believe that heaven will be a place of unimaginable joy.
You Can Find Help to Strengthen Your Family
Finding Joy in a Family That Looks Different
Loving family relationships are most likely to be achieved when founded on the principles Jesus Christ taught, such as:
- Charity
- Forgiveness
- Honesty
- Gratitude
- Prayer
- Worshipping together
As your family draws closer to God through these habits, you will draw closer to each other.
Because we believe families are so important in this life and the next, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints works hard to support healthy family relationships. Here are a few ways you can find support for your family.