“The commandment to honor our parents has strands that run through the entire fabric of the gospel. It is inherent in our relationship to God our Father. It embraces the divine destiny of the children of God. This commandment relates to the government of the family, which is patterned after the government of heaven.
“The commandment to honor our parents echoes the sacred spirit of family relationships in which—at their best—we have sublime expressions of heavenly love and care for one another. We sense the importance of these relationships when we realize that our greatest expressions of joy or pain in mortality come from the members of our families.
– Dallin H. Oaks, “Honor Thy Father and Mother”
“Marriage is more than your love for each other. … In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. … So love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian
Marriage between a man and a woman transcend their love for one another and their own happiness to become a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Parenthood is a status, an office, a title. For this reason we are commanded not only to honor our parents but to seek to emulate them in taking upon ourselves the duty and responsibilities of the honorable state of marriage and parenthood. In our actions related to our family duties we are to take extraordinary care to do no harm and bring no shame upon ourselves and our families.
“A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come.” (D. Todd Christofferson, Why Marriage, Why Family)
For this reason we cannot afford to ignore the command to honor our mother and father and the command to emulate them in becoming parents united in marriage and parenthood; passing the order of heaven from one generation to the next.
“A critical mass of families built on such marriages is vital for societies to survive and flourish. That is why communities and nations generally have encouraged and protected marriage and the family as privileged institutions. It has never been just about the love and happiness of adults.” (D. Todd Christofferson, Why Marriage, Why Family)
And more importantly it is why the Lord has said: “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.” – Doctrine & Covenants 2:2-3
“And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” – Malachi 4:6
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