Religious families operate somewhat differently than those that are not religious. Their values and family patterns are set by their faith in God, and they view their family life as an extension of their faith. In this section, we will explore how religion impacts families and also how religion can be incorporated into everyday family life. Some material will be for all religious families, regardless of faith, others for some subsets of religious families, such as Christians. The second section will specifically discuss how LDS (Mormon) families operate and will often suggest ways people of other faiths can incorporate this into their own lives.
Mormon families believe they can be a family for eternity, so they are highly motivated to make their families work. As a result, they impliment many programs, both at church and at home, to help make eternity a reality for their family. These include weekly family nights and councils, daily scripture study and prayer, and open discussions of goals and values.
Holiday Features:
Christ-Centered Christmas: Simplify and focus on the Savior during the Christmas season.
Stories of Real People Using Faith Through Trials
Wayne Osmond: How his faith sustained him after the diagnosis of a brain tumor.
Alan Osmond: Multiple Sclerosis and Faith: Singer Alan Osmond isn’t afraid of death or of trials.
Jason Wright: Learning From Failure. Author Jason Wright explains that failure can be a good thing.
Teaching Children Values:
Once a week, gather your family for a family night. Teach a value that matters to you and play games afterwards. Following are some lesson plans for your value-based family nights.
Helping Children Choose Good Friends: Children’s friends can have a powerful influence over them. Teach them how to choose wisely.
Helping Children Have Moral Courage: Studies show teens don’t know how to identify moral dilemmas or make moral decisions. Teach your children to stand up for what is right.
Help Teens Recognize Christian Truths: They can’t make wise choices until they know what is true.
Help Children Live With Enthusiasm: Chores and homework have to be done–but you can make them more fun if you have the right attitude.
Teaching Children About Trust and Trustworthiness: Help your children understand why they need to become trustworthy and also to evaluate who to trust in their own lives.
Helping Children Plan for Success: Help your children have successful lives by teaching them to make a road map and a plan for their lives.
Teaching Children to Achieve Excellence: Helping older children and teens work to do their very best at all times.
Persuasion and Influence: Teaching in a way that shows your children you care about them will increase the likelihood that they will listen.
Help Children Choose Good Music: Show your children the impact of music on their lives and help them make Christ-like choices in their music selections.
Helping Children Overcome Jealousy: Help your children and teens understand the roots of envy and find ways to overcome it.
Teaching Children About Unity: When your children work together in unity, everyone is happier.
Teaching Children About Good Health: Help your children learn to enjoy an active lifestyle and to make healthy choices.
Teaching Children Good Manners: Courtesy makes home life more pleasant and helps your children to be welcome in society. Teach them manners through a brief lesson, role playing, and practical experience.
Teaching Children to Obey Their Conscience: Listening to guidance from the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit can keep your children spiritually safe.
Teaching Children to Be Cheerful: This lesson for young children will help them learn to understand cheerfulness as a choice for themselves, and also teach them how to cheer up others.
Helping Children Make Wise Choices and Decisions: Help older children understand the important things in life must be planned and prepared for and show them how to make decisions.
Teaching Children About Charity: Charity is the pure love of Christ. Help your children put it into action.
Accountability: God gives us commandments and gifts, and holds us accountable for their wise use. Help your children learn to be accountable for their actions.
Agency: Teaching children to make wise choices protects their spirituality and enhances their opportunity to grow up well.
Community Service: Help your children choose a way to service their community.
Civic Responsibility: A good follow-up to the community service lesson. Help your children learn to influence their governments even if they can’t vote.
Education: Help your children develop a plan for improving their educational skills and getting into college.
Goals: Teach children that a successful life begins with achievable goals.
Helping Children Overcome Fears: Fear can get in the way of achieving goals.
Helping Children Manage Anger: Teach appropriate ways to cope with angry feelings.
Teaching Children to Have a Good Attitude: We choose our attitudes, and this lesson can help your children learn how to do that.
Helping Children Develop Character: If God wrote your obituary, what would you want it to say? Help each member of your family become the person God wants them to be.
Teaching Children Gratitude: Grateful people are happy even amidst trials. Teach your children to notice and express gratitude for their blessings.
Helping Children to Learn Line Upon Line: Learning and wisdom don’t come instantly. Help your children understand why they need parents to provide limits and why they must take their time learning and growing.
Teaching Children to Journal: Keeping a journal helps children preserve their lives and make wise choices.
Teaching Chastity: How to help your children learn to respect their bodies and themselves by obeying the law of chastity.
Teach Children to Avoid Idleness: Children will be surprised to learn that filling your time with meaningful activity is rewarding.
Religious Family Life:
To Be a Good Parent, Be a Good Person: The most important part of parenting is to set a great example for our children.
Families Founded in Jesus: What does a Christian family look like? What do they teach their children?
Helping Children Get the Most Out of Church: A few hours in church just isn’t enough. Ways to reinforce what your children learn in Sunday School.
Seven Religious Anchors to Keep Teens Strong: Seven anchors that will help your child stay close to your church.
Helping Children Become More Christ-like: By focusing on becoming more than doing, we help children become truly Christlike.
Family: The family is the basic unit of society and needs to be built up to protect against the influences of the world.
Four Ways to Strengthen Our Families and Our Nation: The most effective way to strengthen a nation is to strengthen its families. Four simple ways any family can improve their chances of raising moral kids.
Raising Kind, Self-Reliant, and Thankful Children: Making sure your children don’t become part of the “Me Generation.”
Raising Self-Reliant Children: Children tend to want less when they have to save, sacrifice, or work for it themselves.
Raising Children Who Serve Others: When children serve others, they become less selfish, greedy, and judgmental.
Youth-centered Approaches to Religious Conversation: Selections from: Talking About Religion: How Religious Youth and Parents Discuss Their Faith by David C. Dollahite and Jennifer Y. Thatcher Brigham Young University Forthcoming: Journal of Adolescent Research
Family Scripture Study: How to plan a brief morning scripture study for your family to strengthen their faith.
Inclusion of God as the “Third Cord” in Marriage:
Excerpts from: Threefold Cord: Marital Commitment in Religious Couples By Nathaniel M. Lambert, Florida State University and David C. Dollahite, Brigham Young University.
Raising Children: The Bible offers guidance for religious parents. This article is specifically aimed at Mormon parents.
Four Key Ideas for Raising Religious Children
Reclaiming a Wayward Child: When our children make wrong choices it can be difficult, but we must continue to love them and have hope that they will repent.
Lost Sheep: Blessing the Wayward and the Struggling: We have a responsibility to seek the lost sheep and help them return to the ninety and nine.
Teaching Social Skills in a Christian Home: The socialization of children must be done by parents, particularly if we want them to have Christian social values.
Helping Children Become More Spiritual: Spirituality must be taught. How to help your children develop their spiritual selves.
Morality: Why morality matters and how to help our children want it.
Parenting as Leadership: Good parenting requires all the principles of leadership with a healthy dose of love mixed in.
Chastity and True Love: Why the law of chastity needs to be a part of every loving relationship between unmarried couples.
Teaching Children Reverence and Respect for Sacred Things
Learning-Centered Homes:
Parenting Children With Learning Disabilities
A child with a learning disability can do anything anyone else can do, but may have to do it differently and work much harder at it. Learn how a parent can help the child have a successful life in spite of, and even because of, a learning disability. (Read more)
Creating Learning Centered Homes
Every home should be a house of learning, where children are taught to value life-long, self-directed learning. (Read more.)
List of all education articles on the website
How Mormon Families Work:
Family Home Evening: A weekly evening set aside for family fun and spiritual education can bring your family closer and help your children learn your values.
Engaged Spirituality: Training your children to live a religious life every moment of the day increases the likelihood their faith will take root.
Marriage
Morality – Morality is essential to a strong society as well as to a strong marriage and eternal happiness.
A New Look at the Marriage Covenant: How does the Biblical view of marriage compare to modern concepts of the perfect marriage?
Shared Sacred Vision in Marriage: Sharing a view of marriage as sacred can help prevent many common problems.
Emotional Infidelity: Being faithful involves more than being physically faithful. It also requires you to avoid letting people of the opposite sex matter more to you emotionally than your spouse does.
Finding the Positive in a Difficult Marriage: A method called PI Squared can help you focus on the good, instead of always thinking about what is wrong in your marriage.
How to Become a Better Husband and Wife: A great marriage takes effort, both in improving your own role as a spouse and in learning to be a team.