The baby was only a few days old. As he lay in his crib in the subdued light of the nursery, his mother gazed at him sadly.

"Oh, please don't grow up," she cried in silent thought. "You are so innocent, so precious and the world is so wicked!"

She was feeling the symptoms of post-partum depression, the temporary malaise that afflicts some mothers of newborns. In coming days she would take courage and, in the years that followed, would rear her boy in light and truth. He would grow to be a man of strong character, faithful in the gospel and diligent in his priesthood duties, a dedicated father to little ones of his own. But the mother's silent fears that night in the nursery were real.

The incident occurred a generation ago; if anything, matters in the world have gotten worse since. With the advent of the Internet, pornography is more invasive than ever. A downside of the "information age" is the pervasive abundance of false philosophies and confused thinking that assault the family, that divine institution.

"A revolution in values shook the western world, starting around 1965," observed scholar and historian Allan C. Carlson, author of several books on issues impacting family and society. "Its primary characteristic was a militant secularism, not a benign agnosticism of the past, but a hostile rejection of religious faith. The Belgian sociologist Ron Lustaget defines this revolution as a retreat from the values affirmed by Christian teaching, such as responsibility, sacrifice, altruism, and the sanctity of long-term commitments, such as marriage and childbearing, pushing away those values towards an all-pervasive individualistic secularism, centered on the desires of the self." (From a speech at the World Congress of Families, Washington, D.C., Oct. 26-27, 2001.)

On this, as with other worrisome matters, alarmed parents may draw comfort and assurance from the scriptures. Regarding the Lord and Savior, Isaiah taught, "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd . . . and shall gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:11, emphasis added.) Implicit in this prophecy is the promise that the Lord will extend His guiding hand continually to parents who earnestly try to rear their children in His ways.

How does the Lord accomplish this? Primarily in the manner by which He has nurtured His flock through all ages: by revealing His will to chosen servants and commissioning them to disseminate it to the world.

"Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper," (2 Chronicles 20:20) was the timeless admonition given to ancient Judah, and it applies in matters pertaining to family as well as to anything else.

In our day, divine counsel through prophets has taken the form of "The Family, a Proclamation to the World." This document re-emphasizes age-old teachings, casting them in such a way as to combat current false ideas and influences that do violence to the family as an institution and clarifying the God-appointed roles of marriage and parenthood in the "divine plan of happiness." As pointed out in the content of this Church News edition, the proclamation highlights just those attributes that social scientists have identified as essential for strong and healthy family relationships.

As recently as the last general conference in October, the Lord's spokesman re-affirmed family home evening, the decades-old practice of reserving one night a week for gospel teaching and wholesome family activities. President Gordon B. Hinckley declared that this program "came under the revelations of the Lord in response to a need among the families of the Church." Aware of the constant and increasing encroachment of outside activities on family time, he went so far as to respectfully request that public school officials and others "let us have this one evening a week [Monday] to carry forward this important and traditional program."

Family home evening has been practiced so long that communities have come to associate it with the Church and to follow the example. Yet President Hinckley expressed the fear that "this very important program is fading in too many areas." Is it possible that in taking too casual an approach to family home evening as a defense against the wickedness that threatens our homes, we are being as foolish as Naaman the leper, who initially rejected a prophet's remedy because it seemed too simple? (See 2 Kings 5:10-13.)

In regard to the family, we as a society may find, like Naaman, that our very survival depends upon heeding prophetic counsel in regard to the family.