Family

Family is the original department of health education and welfare. 

This is not an original quote from me, but comes from a TV program that we watch. I think however that it expresses my feelings. It is really true. I think the recent change in the church to emphasize the Family centered church supported programs is tailored for a time as this. 

Many years ago Elder Bruce R. McConkie came to the Riverton Wyoming stake and taught the principles of priesthood correlation.

The first principle is the family and the individual do everything in the church.

The second principle is the church exists to help the family and the individual.

The third principal at that time was that home teaching was the vehicle through which the church supported the family and the individual. Now we have the concept of ministering which is an expansion of home teaching in that it broadens the scope.

There are so many forces, which undermine the concept of the family being the center. Young people find so many things to pull them away from their parents and siblings. Such things as that are not necessarily bad. Sport activities and other social distractions and school activities take the place of family centered activities. It became a problem that the teaching of gospel subjects and general knowledge no longer was the priority of the family. It was often left to the church organizations.   Two income families became more and more common and as a result the children were left to caretakers, or on their own.

Although we went to school we were taught at home. My mother used to read to us. She read stories and poetry. We would go over our spelling words and math problems. We read the scriptures. 

We did not have TV and listened to the radio programs occasionally. 

When we were in Lander they didn’t have the national radio programs like Bob Hope, Amos and Andy, Lux radio theater etc. 

We grew up in a totally different environment. We did not have youth sports unless it was in high school. 

Our family was the center of health as well. We did not go to the doctor very often. Mother took care of the styes on our eyes and our boils and scrapes. When we got bronchitis we were given a mustard plaster and made to breathe steam in a homemade tent with tincture of benzoin and menthol. Later we used Vick’s vapor rub. When we got a sore throat we got our throats seabed with Merthiolate. That was much more preferable than tincture of iodine. Antibiotics were not available. I am not suggesting that we go back to those days, but I do think that we could do a better job of centering health around the family. Each family should document and keep records of illnesses and immunizations. In the future this will be more important. 

When my grandmother Stucki would need help, her children came to her aid. She stayed with us in Denver and taught me to mend runs in nylon stockings and to darn socks. She stayed with us in Cheyenne and Lander. As a widow she had only a small income from her deceased husband’s insurance policy. She would stay at her other children’s homes as well. I suppose that she received some money from them from time to time. She did not go to the bishop for fast offering support and was not on government welfare assistance. The family took care of her. Thus, the family was the welfare department. 

She worked sewing for people and provided for her own needs. She once told her son, Wendell, when he asked her about receiving fast offering that it was for the poor people not her family. 

We will see the time when the family will be even more central to our well-being and safety and our spiritual health. 

Please strengthen your family ties and love them and above all strengthen your and their testimonies of Christ. 

Love,

Grandpa