The sons and daughters of Lehi and Ishmael would marry and rear children “unto the Lord in the land of promise” (1 Nephi 7:1). Righteous families are an integral part of the Lord’s divine purposes. The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles proclaimed that “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. …
“The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102).
President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, testified that joy comes from following the divine pattern for parenthood:
“Our destiny is so established that man can only find complete fulfillment and fill the divine purpose for his creation with a woman to whom he is legally and lawfully married. The union of man and woman begets babies that are conceived and cross that frail footpath into mortality.
“This divine pattern was planned and the gospel designed from ‘before the world was’ (D&C 49:17). The plan provides for us to come to the world into a mortal body. It is ‘the great plan of happiness’ (Alma 42:8). We did not design it. If we follow the pattern, happiness and joy will follow” (Children of God [BYU Women’s Conference, May 5, 2006], 5–6).