Try it live
Search for more passages about family using the interactive demo.
On the Family of God
“The brotherhood of man is founded on the fatherhood of God. The family of God is derived from the love of God — God is love.” — Paper 134:4.1
“When once you grasp the idea of God as a true and loving Father, the only concept which Jesus ever taught, you must forthwith, in all consistency, utterly abandon all those primitive notions about God.” — Paper 188:4.8
“In the experience of finding the Father in heaven, you discover that all men are your brothers, and does it seem strange that one should enjoy the exhilaration of meeting a newly discovered brother?” — Paper 130:2.6
“The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity.” — Paper 12:7.9
“God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man’s eternal destination. All nonreligious human activities seek to bend the universe to the distorting service of self.” — Paper 5:4.3
On Parenthood
“A child can best discover all matters of human relationship by observing how his parents behave; likewise can a child catch a glimpse of the divine nature by understanding the earthly family.” — Paper 142:7.4
“The family is man’s greatest purely human achievement, combining as it does the evolution of the biologic relations of male and female with the social relations of husband and wife.” — Paper 84:6.8
“No surviving mortal, midwayer, or seraphim may ascend to Paradise, attain the Father, and be mustered into the Corps of the Finality without having passed through that sublime experience of achieving parental relationship to an evolving child.” — Paper 45:6.4
“A human being’s entire afterlife is enormously influenced by what happens during the first few years of existence.” — Paper 177:2.5
“The family occupied the very center of Jesus’ philosophy of life — here and hereafter. He based his teachings about God on the family.” — Paper 140:8.14
On Human Family Life
“The family is the fundamental unit of fraternity in which parents and children learn those lessons of patience, altruism, tolerance, and forbearance which are so essential to the realization of brotherhood among all men.” — Paper 84:7.28
“Marriage, with children and consequent family life, is stimulative of the highest potentials in human nature.” — Paper 83:6.6
“A child should gain from his parents the conviction that he is loved. The parents must not fail to bestow this assurance.” — Paper 177:2.2
“Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family. The family was the first successful peace group.” — Paper 68:2.8
“The advances of true civilization are all born in this inner world of mankind. It is only the inner life that is truly creative.” — Paper 111:4.3
On Family and Spiritual Growth
“Those families which are characterized by religious living possess a spiritual vitality far beyond the culture of the irreligious.” — Paper 99:4.2
“While religious faith is the mighty mobilizer, love is the real driving force of life. Every living relationship is founded on love.” — Paper 196:3.29
“Love of children is almost universal and is of distinct survival value. The ancients always sacrificed the mother’s interests for the welfare of the child.” — Paper 84:7.10
“The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided personality — one of justice and one of mercy — neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father’s favor or forgiveness.” — Paper 2:6.6
“The family is vitally linked to the mechanism of self-maintenance; it is the sole hope of perpetuating the race under the mores of civilization.” — Paper 84:6.8
Related Entities
Universal Father
The divine parent of all creation, whose fatherhood is the foundation of the universal family concept.
Jesus of Nazareth
Centered his teachings on the family, using the parent-child relationship to reveal the nature of God.
Adam and Eve
The Material Son and Daughter whose mission included uplifting the biological and cultural life of families on Urantia.