Through the keys restored to Joseph Smith, the promises made earlier to the fathers would be planted in the hearts of the latter-day children, said Elder J. Richard Clarke of the Presidency of the Seventy.
"Our hearts would then turn to our fathers and, through this impelling promise, the sacred relationships of mortality could be extended forever," Elder Clarke said Sunday morning. "Families on earth could become families of heaven."He said Jesus suffered and died to preserve and unify God's family. In early biblical culture, the family included all who were related by blood and marriage. It was linked by love and patriarchal priesthood. The elderly were venerated for their experience and wisdom.
Today, evil forces are attacking the family because it stands for everything Satan wants but cannot have.
"Nevertheless, the family is still society's strongest and most important institution," Elder Clarke said. "Where it has survived, it has done so as a matter of highest priority. Individual interests have been subordinated to the interests of the group. Sacrifice has exceeded selfishness. Loyalty, respect for the family name, pride in one another's achievements, and shared quality time have been pre-eminent."
In a kindred family system, Elder Clark explained, a family member in need would be helped by other members of the family. Shared resources would make the family self-reliant. Children would consider it a blessing to care for aged parents.
He said many years ago he sought a father's blessing at the hands of his aged father, who had been less-active when Elder Clarke was young. His father had never given him a father's blessing. The blessing was sacred and cherished, he said, not because of its eloquence, but because it came from his father.
"I hope, brethren, that you will not deny your children this choice experience," he said.
Single-parent families and single adults should receive priesthood blessings as a part of a gospel kindred family. Role models can be found in quorum brotherhood and Relief Society sisterhood.
As Latter-day Saints learn to be loving, caring families in mortality, their hearts will naturally turn to the members of their kindred family in the spirit world. He told of one single adult, a recent convert from the Washington, D.C., area, who became involved in family history. After her first experience with temple ordinance work, she exclaimed that she was no longer the only member in her family, he related.
Another woman, Linda Seamon of Flagstaff, Ariz., wrote him and told how she and her husband, both from LDS families, became involved in family history work with the help of a persistent family history consultant. Elder Clarke said the couple found many family members whose temple work had been overlooked.
"In the councils of heaven before the world began, we made a solemn agreement with the Lord to assist in bringing to pass the eternal life of man," Elder Clarke emphasized.