I have thought often, since last Conference, of Sister Oscarson’s invitation to become defenders of the family:

During this 20th anniversary year of the family proclamation, I would like to issue a challenge for all of us as women of the Church to be defenders of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” . . . we need to boldly defend the Lord’s revealed doctrines describing marriage, families, the divine roles of men and women, and the importance of homes as sacred places—even when the world is shouting in our ears that these principles are outdated, limiting, or no longer relevant. Everyone, no matter what their marital circumstance or number of children, can be defenders of the Lord’s plan described in the family proclamation. If it is the Lord’s plan, it should also be our plan!

And, in response to her challenge, I want to tell you how I got a testimony of The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

I owned a looseleaf binder version of the Proclamation. Each page had a phrase from the Proclamation, next to illustrations cut from old Ensign articles. My mom gave it to me after her ward put them together for Enrichment. I showed my binder Proclamation to my own ward’s Enrichment leader, and she loved it. She wanted to use it for a Super Saturday crafting project, but she wanted to redo it first. Make the fonts more uniform, cut out the pictures differently. She and I set out to redo the book together. We hunted through back issues of the Ensign, attempting to match or improve the set of illustrations used.

And we did. Over and over, we found them. I had recently thrown out years’ worth of Ensigns, except for one particular year that seemed to have much of what we needed. My friend also found illustrations in unexpected places. Several times we were stumped, and then guided to the perfect picture.

We put the new, improved, illustrated Proclamation binder together, and turned its pages with reverence. Both of us knew that we had been led by the Spirit as we worked on it. It was a foundational testimony experience for me, a time when I saw the hand of God so clearly that I could not deny it.

Years later, my friend has moved out of my ward but still lives in the area, and when we see each other we sometimes talk of our book. “I needed that book,” I have told her, “I needed to gain a stronger testimony of the Proclamation.”

“Me too,” she said.

I needed a stronger testimony of the Proclamation to get me through the pregnancy and births of children number 4 and 5. These were very demanding physically and emotionally.

I needed to turn the pages of my Proclamation book and feel the Spirit witness to me that children are an heritage of the Lord.

I needed to wrestle with those words, “mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children,” because I am not a natural nurturer, at all, and yet I need to figure out how those words apply to me.

Most of all, I needed to feel the undeniable guidance of God as I prepared this book for the sisters in our ward.

***
I loved Jessie’s post on teaching the ideal, living the real. The Family: a Proclamation to the World is the ideal. Sister Oscarson told us in the last General Women’s Session to be defenders of it, and I’ve thought a lot about what that means.

I know there are a lot of families who live the real and find teaching the ideal to be painful and hard. I don’t want to minimize their challenges or their frustration.

I also need to speak my own truth: that when I turn the pages of my book and see the illustration of a baby,
next to the words “Children are an heritage of the Lord,”
I believe.