Lessons of 2025
Lesson No. Forty-Seven

Successful Marriages and Families are Founded on Love

The crowning blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ relates to marriage and family. The doctrine relating to eternal marriage and family was introduced by the Prophet Joseph Smith and recorded in 1843 as D&C 132. In 1996, 153 years after D&C 132, the Church released a significant doctrinal statement concerning the importance of marriage and family in The Family – A Proclamation to the World.

The introductory paragraph of this Proclamation states: “We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” The issues this Proclamation addresses were not so much front and center 30 years ago as they are now. This is a good example of the Lord preparing His people for future calamities He knows are coming.

Trends concerning marriage and family, if not corrected, will result in a demographic calamity effecting every developed and many developing countries in the world. The problem starts when populations age and at the same time there are fewer births. The result is fewer workers to support an aging population who take more than they give. If not corrected it will become irreversible causing a demographic calamity which results in a national collapse.

The United States, while better off than many other developed countries, is at risk. A large national survey of 3,000 Americans by the Deseret News and BYU coincided with the 30th anniversary of when The Family Proclamation was introduced to the Church. I will quote liberally from an article about this survey which was published in the Church News, November 29, 2025:

- President Jeffrey R. Holland explained that “one of the reasons the Church focuses on marriage is because the doctrinal significance of marriage and family throughout the world has been demeaned over the last few decades. ‘The Lord expects us to revere marriage and family and the bearing of children.’”

- Only “45% of survey respondents agreed with the statement ‘Society is better off when more people are married.’” This percentage has been steadily decreasing. “Additionally, among those who agree that society is better off when more people are married, only 11% strongly agree, down from 21% in 2018.

- “Among young adults without children, less than half of women, about 45%, said they want to be parents someday.”

Being single is glamorized and raising children is considered a form of bondage. Recent statistics out of England indicate that, for the first time in human history, fewer than half of British adults are married. Recent headlines announced the world’s first solo-exclusive river cruise ship dedicated entirely to solo travelers. This advertisement concluded: “That's right - every cabin is for one guest only. No sharing…” Conversely, successful marriage and families are all about sharing. There is an important aspect of sharing that covenant keeping members of the Church understand. It is that when temporal things, like money, are shared they are divided and each person gets less. But when eternal things, like love, are shared they are multiplied and everyone involved gets more.

The doctrine taught in the Family Proclamation will strengthen families and by so doing will save communities and nations. This is because the family is the basic unit of society. I recently reread Henry Drummond’s short book entitled, Love, the Greatest Thing in the World. I was first given this book as a teenager by my mother, and rereading increased my understanding of why love is the greatest thing in the world. I will use the thoughts in this book liberally.

Love is the primary ingredient of successful marriages and families. Henry Drummond’s book amplifies the apostle Paul’s focus on love as recorded In 1 Corinthians 13:4-6. In three verses Paul takes the supreme attribute of love, and like a prism which breaks down a beam of light into its component colors, Paul passes love through a spiritual prism to analyze its component parts.

The “Spectrum of Love” as set forth in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6, has nine attributes. These are the attributes that successful marriages and families continually try to improve:

- Patience – Love “suffereth long.” Love is patient and wears “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things. For love understands, and therefore waits patiently” (Henry Drummond).

- Kindness – Love “is kind.” “Have you ever noticed how much of Christ’s life was spent in doing kind things?.... What God has put in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that is largely secured by being kind to them” (Drummond).

- Generosity – Love “envieth not”. Love doesn’t compete with others. “Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not” (Drummond).

- Courtesy – Love “doth not behave itself unseemly.” “You know the meaning of the word ‘gentleman.’ It means a gentle man – a man who does things gently, with love” (Drummond).

- Unselfishness – Love “seeketh not its own.” “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Christ’s yoke and burden is the easiest and happiest way. One of the great lessons of HIs life is that there is no happiness in having or getting, but only in giving and serving. Jesus said, “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11). He also taught, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

- Good temper – Love “is not provoked.” “The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous. It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character….No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianize society than evil temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for withering up men and women, for taking the bloom of childhood, in short for its sheer misery-producing power, bad temper stands alone” (Drummond).

- Guilelessness – Love “taketh not account of evil.” “It is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil. Love sees the bright side, put the best construction of every action. What a delightful state of mind to live in!” (Drummond).

- Sincerity – Love “rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth.” “He who loves will love truth. He will rejoice in the truth. He will search for the truth with a humble unbiased mind, and cherish it wherever he finds it ….He who loves will refuse to make capital out of others’ faults; love delights not in exposing the weakness of others” (Drummond).

Testimony. PRACTICE is the way we make these nine attributes of love part of our lives. We learn to love by practice. Life full of opportunities for learning to love. Every man and every woman every day has a thousand of opportunities to practice learning to love. “The world is not a playground; it is a school room. Life is not a holiday, but an education… What makes a man a good artist, a good sculptor, a good musician? Practice. What makes a man a good man? Practice. Nothing else” (Drummond).

Released on December 8th. 2025.