REL 200 - The Eternal Family

Readings:

"Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations."

The Family: A Proclamation to the World
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Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley  #2
About Education and Finances
Conference Report, October 1998

Work for an education. Get all the training that you can. The world will largely pay you what it thinks you are worth. Paul did not mince words when he wrote to Timothy, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8).

It is your primary obligation to provide for your family.  Your wife will be fortunate indeed if she does not have to go out and compete in the marketplace. She will be twice blessed if she is able to remain at home while you become the breadwinner of the family.

Education is the key to economic opportunity. The Lord has laid a mandate upon us as a people to acquire learning “by study, and also by faith” (D&C 109:14). It is likely that you will be a better provider if your mind and hands are trained to do something worthwhile in the society of which you will become a part.

Be modest in your wants. You do not need a big home with a big mortgage as you begin your lives together. You can and should avoid overwhelming debt. There is nothing that will cause greater tensions in marriage than grinding debt, which will make of you a slave to your creditors. You may have to borrow money to begin ownership of a home. But do not let it be so costly that it will preoccupy your thoughts day and night.

President George Q. Cannon
Postponing Marriage Due to Finances
Gospel Truth, p. 369

Marriage not to be postponed. Young men make a great mistake to postpone marriage when they reach the proper age. It is a groundless fear for any young man of industrious habits to think that he cannot support a wife. A healthy, industrious young fellow has no reason to fear about making a living in this country. If he is intelligent and energetic, he will find plenty of opportunities to make a living for himself and for a wife.

There is a blessing attends marriage when rightly entered upon. The experience of the world, in all societies, is that married people do better, even in a worldly sense, than the unmarried. A young man finds that he can support himself and wife as easily as he supported himself. When a child is born, the married couple find it no harder to live than they did before. And as the family increases, their ability increases in proportion. There is a providence over every human being, and our Father, Who provides for the wants of the sparrows, does not forget His children.

... Do not be afraid of marriage, even though you may be poor. Select for yourself a good partner--a faithful, honest, industrious girl--and get married. If you are energetic yourself, and not afraid of work, you will have no trouble in making a living, and you will increase your happiness very much by doing so. The fact of your having a wife and the prospect of children will arouse your energies and make you think and exercise your brains. This of itself will have a beneficial effect. ...

A generation who marry reasonably early is a happier, a stronger and purer generation than one in which marriage is deferred till later in life.