Wednesday, October 8, 2014

A Favorite Quote

I remember this quote from a packet I received in my "Teachings of the Living Prophets" class at BYU. Said packet is buried somewhere in Mom and Dad's house now, and I've never remembered what talk it was from or anything. Then today in my study from "Come, Follow Me" I clicked to a link from an Education Week talk from Elder Ballard, and voila! There is the quote. I was excited to know the talk it's from. I think it's funny, and also very true.

"When you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense. When Satan wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O or casseroles. When Satan truly wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he attempts to confuse gender and he attacks God’s plan for His children. He works to drive a wedge of disharmony between a father and a mother. He entices children to be disobedient to their parents. He makes family home evening and family prayer inconvenient. He suggests family scripture study is impractical. That’s all it takes, because Satan knows that the surest and most effective way to disrupt the Lord’s work is to diminish the effectiveness of the family and the sanctity of the home." 

From "The Sacred Responsibilities of Parenthood" in the March 2006 Ensign, taken from a BYU Education Week Devotional