Day Marks

“Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God . . . the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children . . . the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets . . . We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.” (Family Proclamation, September 23, 1995, in Salt Lake City, Utah.)

“The Road is rough,” I said. “Dear Lord, there are stones that hurt me so.” And He said, “Dear child, I understand. I walked it long ago.” “But there is a cool green path,” I said. “Let me walk there for a time.” “No, child,” He gently answered me. “The green road does not climb.” “My burden,” I said, “is far too great. How can I bear it so?” “My child,” said He, “I remember its weight. I carried my cross, you know.” “I wish there were some friends with me who would make my way their own.” “Oh yes,” He said, “Gethsemane was hard to face all alone.” And so I climbed the stony path, content at last to know That where the Savior had not gone, I would not need to go. And strangely then I found new friends; the burden grew less sore, As I remembered long ago, He went that way before. (Anonymous)

“If you want to have something you have never had before, you have to do something you have never done before.” (Richard Jones)

The marriage vow unites not just a woman and a man with each other; it unites each of them with the community in a vow of sexual responsibility toward all others. The whole community is married, realizes its essential unity, in each of its marriages . . . What marriage offers -- and what fidelity is meant to protect -- is the possibility of moments when what we have chosen and what we desire are the same. Such a convergence obviously cannot be continuous. No relationship can continue very long at its highest pitch. But fidelity prepares us for the return of these moments, which gives us the highest joy we can know: that of union, communion, atonement (in the root sense of at-one-ment). [Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America , 1977, p. 122]

“Guard closely a sense of the wonder of life, of the joy of giving, of love for another. For in a heart devoid of these, God cannot dwell.” (ENSIGN July 1977)

“What is more amiable and pleasant than those pure, innocent, endearing affections which God has placed in the hearts of the male and female, who are united in lawful matrimony, with a love and affection, pure as the love of God, because it springs from Him, and is His gift: with bodies chaste and virtuous, and an offspring, lovely, healthy, pure, innocent, and uncontaminated: confiding in each other, they live together in the fear of God, enjoying nature's gifts uncorrupted, and undefiled as the driven snow, or the crystal stream.” ( Teachings of Presidents of the Church , John Taylor, p. 194)