My dear young women, with all my heart I urge you not to look to contemporary culture for your role models and mentors. Please look to your faithful mothers for a pattern to follow. Model yourselves after them, not after celebrities whose standards are not the Lord's standards and whose values may not reflect an eternal perspective. Look to your mother.
M. Russell BallardFourth, come home from work and take an active role with your family. Don't put work, friends, or sports ahead of listening to, playing with, and teaching your children.
M. Russell BallardFriends and family are vitally important for an individual who is struggling to return to the gospel path. Those around such a person must refrain from judging. They must do all they can to show love.
M. Russell BallardBe involved; be informed. Make meaningful contributions to society through service and involvement.
M. Russell BallardThe central activity of leadership is teaching - first by example, second by precept.
M. Russell BallardLearning the lessons of the past allows you to walk boldly in the light without running the risk of stumbling in the darkness. This is the way it's supposed to work. This is God's plan: father and mother, grandfather and grandmother teaching their children; children learning from them and then becoming a more righteous generation through their own personal experiences and opportunities. Learning the lessons of the past allows you to build personal testimony on a solid bedrock of obedience, faith, and the witness of the Spirit.
M. Russell Ballard