Family Proclamation to The World

 The Family Proclamation to The World given by the Prophets and Apostles of Jesus Christ, states the roles and responsibilities of parents while raising their children,

“Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. ‘Children are an heritage of the Lord’ (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.”

These responsibilities are, again, sacred. Each husband and wife decide how they will execute raising their children in love and righteousness, and as they involve God in their marriage and family, they will be able to fulfil their parental responsibilities and receive the blessings that come with it.

I really like my job, so sometimes I like to make analogies from my experiences. I'm a phlebotomist at Grifols, a plasma donation center. All employees have a responsibility to ensure the donors are healthy and safe, the plasma we use is sterile and uncontaminated, and things are documented correctly. With the different job positions, those main three responsibilities look different for everyone.

A Phlebotomist’s responsibilities are to monitor the donors during the plasmapheresis process. No throwing up, no passing out, no food, no chewing gum, no bending the arm with the 17-gage needle in it.

An employee screening would be responsible for making sure donors’ vitals are in an appropriate range, so they wouldn’t be putting themselves at risk while donating.

Management oversees ordering supplies that we would use, verifying if donors did or didn’t lose any blood, and scheduling the correct number of employees as appropriate.

When anything out of the ordinary happens, we document. When we do anything at all, we document it. Re-stick, infiltration, someone passing out, what

The phlebotomist sticks a donor, literally anything. Quality then makes sure that we did our jobs right, but they aren't in charge of ALL documentation, they just have a responsibility to make sure it is done, and it is done correctly. I believe in some situations this can explain a marriage between a man and women. We do not need to do all the work in our sacred responsibilities, but I believe that we can strengthen each other in our responsibilities to build Zion, and God will magnify our efforts.

The family proclamation also states more specific sacred roles for the mothers and fathers, “By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.” The specific roles lean towards a more traditional approach to the family. The father goes to work and is the “man of the house”, and the mother stays home and takes care of the children.

What do these roles specifically mean? Can a mother not go to work and still be fulfilling her sacred responsibilities? Can a man stay at home and still feel like he is providing for his family? I am not exactly sure what heavenly father means. I am not sure if disability and death is the only “exceptions” to the traditional roles. What kind of blessings would poor down if we abided by the family proclamation to the world?