Work and Education

Readings in the Student Manual:

Readings in this Page:

President Joseph F. Smith
Postponing Marriage
Gospel Doctrine, p.281

The spirit of the world is contagious.  We cannot live in the midst of such social conditions without suffering from the effects of their allurements.  Our young people will be tempted to follow the example of the world about them. There is already a strong tendency to make sport of the obligations to marry.  Pretexts of ambition are set up as an excuse to postpone marriage till some special object is attained.  Some of our leading young men desire to complete first a course of study at home or abroad.  Being natural leaders in society their example is dangerous and the excuse is one of questionable propriety.  It were better far that many such young men never went to college than that the excuse of college life be made the reason for postponing marriage beyond the proper age.  (April 15, 1905)

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.

President George Q. Cannon
Marrying Someone With Similar Educational Background
Gospel Truth, p.374

The marriage of an ignorant person with an intelligent one is not always attended with happy results. There should be some similarity of taste, of disposition, of training, and certainly of belief, to make a couple congenial. A young man, therefore, in seeking for a partner--and the same may be said of young women--should bear in mind that to live happily through life in the wedded condition they should have partners of congenial tastes and of similar training. An intelligent, educated girl who marries an ignorant man must either lift him to her level, if she would lead a pleasant life and maintain her self-respect, or she must descend to his level. It is seldom that a woman can lift her husband in this way; she is more likely either to become discouraged and alienated from him, and separated from him, or descend to his level. If she does the latter, she cannot escape the feeling that she is lowering herself and descending from the station she might have occupied. The young man who marries a girl who is not his equal in education or in intelligence is more likely to lift her up to his level, and to inspire her with noble thoughts, and to develop her higher attributes, than in the other case. (May 15, 1891)

Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley
Caution in the Workplace
Conference Report, October 1998

You women who are single, and some of you who are married, who are out in the workplace, may I give you a word of caution. You work alongside men. More and more, there are invitations to go to lunch, ostensibly to talk about business. You travel together. You stay in the same hotel.  You work together.  Perhaps you cannot avoid some of this, but you can avoid getting into compromising situations.

Do your job, but keep your distance. Don’t become a factor in the breakup of another woman’s home. You are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You know what is expected of you. Stay away from that which is tempting. Avoid evil its very appearance.

I think the nurture and upbringing of children is more than a part-time responsibility. I recognize that some women must work, but I fear that there are far too many who do so only to get the means for a little more luxury and a few fancier toys.  If you must work, you have an increased load to bear. You cannot afford to neglect your children.  They need your supervision in studying, in working inside and outside the home, in the nurturing that only you can adequately give the love, the blessing, the encouragement, and the closeness of a mother.  Families are being torn asunder everywhere. Family relationships are strained as women try to keep up with the rigors of two full-time jobs.

Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley
Counsel for Working Mothers - 2
Conference Report, October 1983

To you women who find it necessary to work when you would rather be at home, may I speak briefly. ... Some of you have been abandoned and are divorced, with children to care for. Some of you are widows with dependent families. I honor you and respect you for your integrity and spirit of self-reliance. I pray that the Lord will bless you with strength and great capacity, for you need both. You have the responsibilities of both breadwinner and homemaker. I know that it is difficult. I know that it is discouraging. I pray that the Lord will bless you with a special wisdom and the remarkable talent needed to provide your children with time and companionship and love and with that special direction which only a mother can give. I pray also that he will bless you with help, unstintingly given, from family, friends, and the Church, which will lift some of the burden from your shoulders and help you in your times of extremity.

We sense, at least in some small degree, the loneliness you must occasionally feel and the frustrations you must experience as you try to cope with problems that sometimes seem beyond your capacity to handle. Sometimes you need food for your tables, and we trust that bishops will be there to supply food and other goods and services under the great program which the Lord has provided in his Church. But we know that more often your greater need is for understanding and appreciation and companionship. We shall try a little harder to cultivate these virtues, and I urge you sisters who are in a position to do so to reach out with greater concern to those who find themselves in these less fortunate circumstances.

Now to others who work when it is not necessary and who, while doing so, leave children to the care of those who often are only poor substitutes, I offer a word of caution. Do not follow a practice which will bring you later regret. If the purpose of your daily employment is simply to get money for a boat or a fancy automobile or some other desirable but unnecessary thing, and in the process you lose the companionship of your children and the opportunity to rear them, you may find that you have lost the substance while grasping at the shadow.

Much is said about the drudgery and the confinement of the woman’s role in the home. In the perspective of the gospel it is not so. There is divinity in each new life. There is challenge in creating the environment in which a child can grow and develop. There is partnership between the man and woman in building a family which can last throughout the eternities. Marriage is a partnership. Each is given a part of the work of life to do. The fact that some women and men disregard their work and their opportunities does not change the program.

When we speak of marriage as a partnership, let us speak of marriage as a full partnership. We do not want our LDS women to be silent partners or limited partners in that eternal assignment!  Please be a contributing and full partner.

Mothers have a sacred role. They are partners with God, as well as with their own husbands, first in giving birth to the Lord’s spirit children and then in rearing those children so they will serve the Lord and keep his commandments. Could there be a more sacred trust than to be a trustee for honorable, well-born, well-developed children?

We reaffirm the Church’s strong, unalterable stand against innovations or any unchastity or breaking of the laws that could possibly reflect in the lives of the children.

Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley
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.