The church's 2009 Primary sharing time theme -- "My Eternal Family" -- provides a foundation on which the general Primary leaders hope children will someday build an eternal family.

"The family is foundational in the gospel and in our Heavenly Father's plan. It is central to everything. We are all a part of families, no matter what that family looks like," said Cheryl C. Lant, Primary general president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Primary is the Mormons' organization for children.

Sister Lant and her counselors, Margaret S. Lifferth and Vicki F. Matsumori, told the Church News that they want children to understand this year that they have an important role in building an eternal family. Primary children can strengthen the families they have now, and prepare for their future families, they said.

This year's sharing time and the children's sacrament-meeting presentation theme is based on the seventh paragraph of The Family, A Proclamation to the World: "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."



"Children are a big part of the family," said Sister Lant. "They are not ever too young to start to understand that applying the teachings of the gospel, the principles of the gospel, is going to make them happy. They are going to make their family life happier."

She said children need to know that they have a responsibility in their family. "It is the principles of the gospel and living those principles that are taught that help us look forward to an eternal family," she said.

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This storyis provided by the LDS Church News, an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is produced weekly by the Deseret News.