A young couple was struggling with their first child during sacrament meeting. The girl, nearly 1 year old, was fussy and unmanageable. During the meeting, each parent had to take her out to the foyer to try to settle her down. The parents became exasperated and emotionally exhausted.

As soon as the meeting ended, an elderly patriarch sitting in the row in front of the young family stood, turned and sternly said to the flustered couple, "Do you know what I'd do if I had a child who acted like that during Church?" As the parents braced for the answer, a broad smile crossed his face and he exclaimed, "I'd just keep on loving her!"

That counsel is in keeping with the feelings the Savior expressed about children. Latter-day prophets have repeated that counsel.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said in the October 1995 general conference: "You parents, love your children. Cherish them. They are so precious. They are so very, very important. They are the future. You need more than your own wisdom in rearing them. You need the help of the Lord. Pray for that help and follow the inspiration which you receive."

In the October 1994 general conference, President Howard W. Hunter repeated the words of President George Albert Smith: "We should not lose our tempers and abuse one another. . . . Nobody ever abused anybody else when he had the spirit of the Lord. It is always when we have some other spirit." Then President Hunter added: "Earn the respect of your children through your loving relationship with them. . . . Tender expressions of love and affection toward children are as much the responsibility of the father as the mother. Tell your children you love them."

Focusing on the younger audience, President Ezra Taft Benson, during the April 1989 general conference, said: "Dear child, you are God's gift to your parents, and the gift your parents can give God is to bring you back to Him sweet and pure and faithful.

"He expects your parents . . . to teach you, to walk beside you, and to be shining examples to you so that you will know the way you should go. They must spend time with you and love you and pray with you and for you."

And President Spencer W. Kimball said in the April 1978 general conference, "We are much concerned that there would be a single parent that would inflict damages on a child. . . . Let no Latter-day Saint parent ever be guilty of the heinous crime of abusing one of Christ's little ones!"

Children may be embarrassingly fussy in public settings, slow to obey, and defiant. They may fight with siblings and friends. They may do any number of things to wear the patience thin of parents who are likely struggling with many other challenges in life. But as children of God, as well as of their earthly parents, it has been made clear by the Lord that they must be treated with love, respect and patience.

The Savior warned in instructions to His disciples, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." (Matt. 18:6.)

"Could there be a stronger denunciation of those who abuse children than these words spoken by the Savior of mankind?" asked President Hinckley, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, during the October 1978 general conference. He continued, "Do you want a spirit of love to grow in the world? Then begin within the walls of your own home. Behold your little ones and see within them the wonders of God, from whose presence they have recently come."