Elder James E. Faust spoke Saturday afternoon of "the greatest challenge in the world: being good parents."

Elder Faust, a member of the Council of the Twelve, said even the most conscientious parents feel they may have made some mistakes. "One time, when I did a thoughtless thing, I remember my own mother exclaiming, `Where did I fail?' " related Elder Faust, extending his arms outward, as if mimicking his mother's gesture of exasperation.He explained the Lord directed, "Bring up your children in light and truth." (D&C 93:40.) There is no more important human effort than this, counseled Elder Faust.

He spoke of decaying values in society at large and counseled, "Somehow, some way, we must try harder to make our homes stronger so that they will stand as sanctuaries against the unwholesome, pervasive moral dry-rot around us.

"Harmony, happiness, peace, and love in the home can help give children the required inner strength to cope with life's challenges."

He said single parents should be honored and helped in their heroic efforts to hold the family together. He noted that any mother's or father's task is much easier when there are two functioning parents in the home.

Parents must set proper examples, he continued. If they expect their children to be honest and virtuous, they must be honest and virtuous themselves.

Elder Faust explained that one of the most difficult parental challenges "is to appropriately discipline children," which he said is a matter of prayerful discernment and must be motivated more by love than by punishment.

An essential part of teaching children to be disciplined and responsible is to have them learn to work, he declared.

Elder Faust noted that children are beneficiaries of moral agency by which "we are all afforded the opportunity to progress, grow and develop. That agency also permits children to pursue the alternate choices. . . ." Elder Faust said that parents who have been conscientious, loving and concerned and who have lived the principles of righteousness as best they could should be comforted in knowing they are good parents despite the actions of some of their children.

"Parents," he emphasized, "cannot always answer for all their children's misconduct because they cannot ensure the children's good behavior."

"Some few children could tax even Solomon's wisdom and Job's patience," said Elder Faust.

He explained parental teaching moments need not be big or dramatic or powerful. "The little things are the big things sewn into the family tapestry by a thousand threads of love, faith, discipline, sacrifice, patience and work."