"The adversary would divide us, break us up, and, if he can, destroy us," President Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve, said at the April 1995 general conference. "But the Lord said, `Lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, . . . taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.' (D&C 27:15, 17.)
"The ministry of the prophets and apostles leads them ever and always to the home and the family. That shield of faith is not produced in a factory but at home in a cottage industry."The ultimate purpose of all we teach is to unite parents and children in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they are happy at home, sealed in an eternal marriage, linked to their generations, and assured of exaltation in the presence of our Heavenly Father."
President Packer said that the "shield of faith" is to be made and fitted in the family. "No two can be exactly alike. Each must be handcrafted to individual specifications," he said.
He emphasized that the plan designed by the Father contemplates that man and woman, husband and wife, working together, fit each child individually with a shield of faith made to buckle on so firmly that it can neither be pulled off nor penetrated by the "fiery darts of the wicked." He said, "It takes the steady strength of a father to hammer out the metal of it and the tender hands of a mother to polish and fit it on. Sometimes one parent is left to do it alone. It is difficult, but it can be done.
"In the Church we can teach about the materials from which a shield of faith is made: reverence, courage, chastity, repentance, forgiveness, compassion. In church we can learn how to assemble and fit them together. But the actual making of and fitting on of the shield of faith belongs in the family circle. Otherwise it may loosen and come off in a crisis.
"The prophets and apostles know full well that the perilous times Paul prophesied for the last days are now upon us: `Men
areT lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection.' (2 Timothy 3:2-3.)
"Knowing it would be so, the Lord warned that `inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes . . . that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost . . . the sin be upon the heads of the parents.
" `For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion. . . .
" `And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.' (D&C 68:25-26, 28.)
"This shield of faith is not manufactured on an assembly line, only handmade in a cottage industry. Therefore our leaders press members to understand that what is most worth doing must be done at home."