WHY HAVE A FAMILY?

For me there are certain purposes of a family:
 Bring children into the world
 Help people become more like God
 Teach gospel truths

Families are designed to bring children into the world through the bonds of marriage. That is why there is a man and a woman. They are both needed to have and raise children. Children learn skills from both the mother and the father. Through the mother, children learn kindness, helpfulness, creativeness, love, spiritualness, organization... Through the father they learn determination, hard work, to try new things, power of the priesthood... Both of the parents teach respect and communication skills. Elder Robert D. Hales in his Conference talk "The Eternal Family" states that "the home is where we are nurtured and where we prepare ourselves for living in mortality."

Families are designed to help people become more Godlike. Elder David A. Bednar said that "the natures of male and female spirits complete and perfect each other." Men and women were designed to be different so that they could assist each other in the journey to exaltation. President Kimball once said something along the lines of, they are different enough that they can compliment each other, but alike enough that they can understand each other. We shouldn't envy the differences between them, we should understand the beautiful basics in the differences and act accordingly. In another class I have we were talking about Moses 1:39 "For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass immortality and the eternal life of man." We talked about how women are needed for the immortality part and men are needed for the eternal life part. Without them both we would not get anywhere. Men and women are to complete each other not compete with each other.

Families are supposed to teach gospel truths. Not just gospel truths but every truths. Parent's cannot just send their children to school or to church and expect them to learn what's important. That's the parent's job. Parents need to teach their children the basics in life and give them a solid foundation where they can build off of. Then church and school or any other places can build on the knowledge the children already have.

Without the family our society would perish.