Family Councils Part 2

Continuing the topic of family councils in the scriptures from yesterday, the third type of family council that Elder Ballard discussed was that of both parents with one child.  Perhaps the best example of this in the scriptures was the brief impromptu family council that we see between Mary, Joseph, and Jesus when He was twelve years of age in Luke 2:45-50.  After He had stayed behind to be in the temple and teach the people for three days, Mary and Joseph found Him.  Mary said to Him, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.”  Jesus responded to them saying, “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”   In this case it was an informal council in which the child taught the parents about what was most important, and surely the interchange continued to teach Mary and Joseph for years to come. 

The fourth type of family council was that between a husband and wife alone, and we see evidence of this type of council in many of the stories of the families in the scriptures.  In Moses 5:10-12 we get a snippet of a discussion between Adam and Eve as they were reflecting on the transgression that had gotten them thrust out of the Garden of Eden.  They must have been wondering for a long time whether they had indeed made the right choice in partaking of the fruit, especially as they had children and met with struggles.  These verses seem to show their realization together that their transgression had been for the best.  Adam said, “Because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy.”  Eve responded to him saying, “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption.”  From this husband and wife council they then together “blessed the name of God” and determined that they would make “all things known unto their sons and daughters.”  The council had helped bring the clarifying revelation about what their transgression in the garden had meant.  We get another snippet of a husband and wife council in Genesis 30:1-4.  Rachel, Jacob’s wife, had been unable to have children and she was so upset about it that she said to her husband, “Give me children, or else I die.”  Jacob expressed his own frustration to his wife saying, “Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?”  There was likely much more discussion between them than these short verses show, but it appears to have been Rachel that offered the solution to their problem: “Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.”  And so from their husband and wife council they determined to have Jacob take Bilhah to wife.  We have a snippet of a similar husband and wife council with the same result in Genesis 16:1-3 as “Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai” and took Hagar to wife.

Ultimately I think that all family councils at the core should be an attempt to unite our efforts to understand and then commit to do the will of the Lord.  Elder Ballard suggested that the family council should “invite the presence of the Savior” and that “inviting the Spirit of the Lord to be part of your family council brings blessing beyond description.”  It our hearts are right then our only desire will be to learn God’s will for our family, and that can only be obtained through the Spirit, and these types of family councils help to invite that spirit as we work out challenges together.  We seek to “counsel with the Lord in all [our] doings” in order to understand what is right for our family now so that ultimately we may all be “lifted up at the last day” (Alma 37:37).