Sister Tanner

I grew up in a home where there was a very good marriage, but I remember my mother saying over and over to me, “This is work; to have a good marriage is hard work.” She wasn’t saying that they didn’t have a good marriage, but she meant that you never let a day go by without thinking about blessing the partner in your marriage and working on this and thinking about his or her needs....

Sister Tanner

There’s a wonderful quote from John Milton, an author, in Paradise Lost. Adam is talking about Eve, and he praises her and says, “Those thousand decencies that daily flow from all her words and actions, mixt with Love.”⁴ I think about that a lot. If we could have companionships that were like that, where we think over and over and over about what we can do—

Sister Lant

To help. You know there has to be a division of labor to some extent in a marriage, because you can’t do it all by yourself. But it has occurred to me—well, it’s evident—that the division of labor for young couples today is different than it was when I was first married. I watch the young couples in my family—my children and their spouses—and the way they do things in their family. It’s different than we did. They still get the job done. They work together in a different way. And in many ways it’s better than the way we did it. The point is, though, that it’s individual. Each couple has to work out how they will do things.

Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting: Building Up a Righteous Posterity
February 9, 2008

Roundtable Discussion

We must love our children and teach them they are children of a Heavenly Father, who loves them. As they feel our love, they will feel His love and will be grateful for their good name and for the name of Christ, which they bear. As they feel our love and the love of their Heavenly Father, they feel no need for the possessions of others. Help them to measure personal progress and not compare themselves to others....

Elder Lynn A. Mickelsen, "Eternal Laws of Happiness," Ensign, Nov.1995, 78.

Temper tantrums are not cute even in children; they are despicable in adults, especially adults who are supposed to love each other. We are too easily provoked; we are too inclined to think that our partner meant to hurt us--meant to do us evil, so to speak; and in defensive or jealous response we too often rejoice when we see them make a mistake and find them in a fault. Let's show some discipline on this one. Act a little more maturely. Bite your tongue if you have to. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city" (Proverbs 16:32). At least one difference between a tolerable marriage and a great one may be that willingness in the latter to allow some things to pass without comment, without response.

Jeffrey R. Holland, "How Do I Love Thee?" 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's 

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, --I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

--Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Sonnet XLIII, Sonnets from the Portuguese)