What comes first: God or family?

[taekwondave]

1) God, 2) Family, 3) Job, 4) Church.

God = covenants/commandments. Which are inextricably tied to family. And, likewise, you need to have some kind of employment to meet your family's needs. Then comes church callings...

I don't know how or why we are placing an order of importance on these things at all, I guess. They're all just different aspects of life. Which is more important, 1. Food, 2. water? Sure, you'll die faster without one than the other, but the end result is the same. Balance is what matters. If you think family time is so important that you justify not taking out personal time to exercise, then you get fat and diseased and your family loses you to a stroke/heart attack thirty years sooner than they had to, etc. Obviously it doesn't work exactly like that but happiness in life involves a harmonious balance/fluctuation of experience. Family time is nice, friend time is nice, personal time is nice, church time is nice, sports-watching time is nice, work time is nice... but is one more vital than another? Obviously some will say sports watching is less "vital" than the others, but in a broader sense it just represents the category of rest and relaxation. All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. They are all different spices on the plate of life and all have a place and the power to bring us fulfillment. Saying that one is more important than another is a little like the head saying to the foot "I have no need of you." My two cents.

[statman]

I don't know how or why we are placing an order of importance on these things at all, I guess.

Here's how L. Tom prioritized them -

http://lds.org/library/display/0,494...3363-4,00.html

- "eternal companion" (getting the God/covenants thing in there)

- children

- providing for family

- church service

[Sullyute]

Here's how L. Tom prioritized them -

http://lds.org/library/display/0,494...3363-4,00.html

- "eternal companion" (getting the God/covenants thing in there)

- children

- providing for family

- church service

How does this work for single parents, divorced people, never married, etc? What about someone who is married to a non-member? Does children slide to number one or is the #1 priority making the non-member spouse an "eternal companion."

[taekwondave]

Here's how L. Tom prioritized them -

http://lds.org/library/display/0,494...3363-4,00.html

- "eternal companion" (getting the God/covenants thing in there)

- children

- providing for family

- church service

With all due respect to both you and elder perry, how does that in any way answer that question?

[SoonerCoug]

I don't know how or why we are placing an order of importance on these things at all, I guess. They're all just different aspects of life. Which is more important, 1. Food, 2. water? Sure, you'll die faster without one than the other, but the end result is the same.

I sort of disagree with the analogy because people can live without the Church (e.g. SeattleUte) and also without family.

[GrizzledVeteran]

False premise. God is family.

[taekwondave]

I sort of disagree with the analogy because people can live without the Church (e.g. SeattleUte) and also without family.

Agreed. But to those who see their church, or lack thereof, as a vital cog in their life, cutting it out to make room for some other part of their life would do them no good. We ought to value and enjoy every aspect of our lives, is all I'm saying, and not give special importance to one part or another. Balance is key in my mind. Give everything a place, but I see no need to call one place better than another, except maybe to its face

[UtahDan]

Alphabetically it is family. Historically, also family.

[taekwondave]

False premise. God is family.

I love my family, I do. But I have a hunch that "Christ-like" love is not so limited in scope. As much as we hear in our country about "God, country, family", I wish people would just say "people." I think people matter, regardless of closely related to them you are by blood, or whether you even speak the same language or not. I wish we had seen the Iraqis as our family. So many of them might still be alive today if we had, but as Americans love to say, "better them than us." Such a limited scope of love, I suspect, will never yield a fullness of joy.

[grapevine]

I didn't go to training by a Seventy last week Area Seventy he said there is time for work, church, family and civic responsibilities. Need to decide which is more important.

[Spicy McHaggis]

Family. Anything else is a distant 2nd.
The trouble is, far too many people believe God is synonymous with the LDS church.