Extended Family

“Extended families should lend support when needed.”

Proclamation, ¶ 7

“To build a foundation strong enough to support a family in our troubled world today requires the best effort of each of us—father, mother, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins, and so on.”

Elder L. Tom Perry

The Kindred Concept

A Binding and Influencing Chain (Web?)“The particular human chain we belong to is central to our individual identity.” (Text, p. 138)

Ancestral Links“Most of us, with relatively little effort…can provide for our families a veritable list of important role models. This list can be created from a modest search into the lives of our ancestors.”

Elder Monte J. Brough

Proximal LinksProcess of immediate becoming extended

“In earliest biblical culture, the family was more than a parent and child unit. It included all who were related by blood and marriage…strongly linked by natural affection and the patriarchal priesthood…There were strength and safety in numbers, and, through love and support, members established solidarity and continuity.”

Elder J. Richard Clarke

Influence for Good or Bad

Intergenerational Transmission“It is contrary to the order of heaven for any soul to be locked into compulsive, immoral behavior with now ay out!”

Elder Boyd K. Packer

Transitional Characters“A transitional character is one who, in a single generation, changes the entire course of a lineage…Their contribution to humanity is to filter the destructiveness out of their own lineage to that generations downstream will have a supportive foundation upon which to build productive lives.”

Carlfred Broderick

“To you I say with all of the energy of which I am capable, do not become a weak link in the chain of your generations. You come to the world with a marvelous inheritance. You come of great men and women. . . Never let them down. Never do anything which would weaken the chain of which you are a fundamental part.”

President Gordon B. HinckleyRicks College Devotional, 1999

Parents and SiblingsAdult Parent-Child Relationships Endure longer (over 50 years!) Continued teaching Tend to improve, though follow general trends

established earlier Eventual role-reversal in caregiving

Siblings Longest living human relationships Important source of support Aunt/Uncle roles

GrandparentsKey Roles Historians Mentors Nurtures Role Models Playmates

Significant Influences Sense of Identity Transmission of Values,

Ideals, Beliefs

“Life’s lessons, some of them very painful, qualify us to counsel, to correct, and even to warn our youth…You may at last when old and feeble learn that the greatest mission of all is to strengthen you own family and the families of others, to seal the generations. Now, I am teaching a true principle. I am teaching a doctrine.”

Elder Boyd K. PackerThe Golden Years, Ensign May 2003

Lending Support When Needed

What are some specific ways that parents, siblings, grandparents, and other extended family can help through:

Transition to AdulthoodMarriage PreparationTransition to/early MarriageTransition to ParenthoodTransition to Old AgeOther critical times?