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"Countless speeches have been given and volumes written on families, some heaping praise on this basic unit of society and others cautioning about perils that exist or lie ahead…
"Perhaps the quote Latter-day Saints cite most often about families is contained in a statement that President David O. McKay made in an April 1964 general conference address:
’When one puts business or pleasure above his home, he that moment starts to downgrade to soul-weakness. When the club becomes more attractive to any man than his home, it is time for him to confess in bitter shame that he has failed to measure up to the supreme opportunity of his life and flunked in the final test of true manhood. No other success can compensate for failure in the home. The poorest shack in which love prevails over a united family is of greater value to God and future humanity than any other riches. In such a home God can work miracles and will work miracles.’
"Terry Olson, a professor in BYU’s Family Sciences Department, has…said,
’We [society at large] are recognizing we have no substitute for the family. When we have abandoned children, orphans, children whose own parents have pitifully abused them, what do we do with these children? We try to find another family. It may be that people are beginning to realize that the magic of family life isn’t just in the structure; it’s in the quality of life lived by those in the family.’
"He further said it is within the family ’where we learn what it takes to be human, where people can teach us, forgive us, help us, and bless us. The family performs those functions in ways that no other agency will be able to do.’
“David L. and Joye J. Griffin of the Farmington 9th Ward, Farmington Utah South Stake, try to exemplify the ideals of home and family taught by Church leaders…Sister Griffin advocates daily scripture reading and family prayer. ’Our reading is not a long, drawn-out process; it’s just a few minutes, but we feel those few minutes will help give our sons a good balance for the whole day, for whatever else will come.’ She said her philosophy of being a good parent is summed up in Alma 53:20Alma 53:21Alma 53:20-21.” (“Society’s Basic Unit: Today’s Family,” Church News, Date: 11/23/9)