One of the most touching moments in the Book of Mormon is the resurrected Savior’s visit to the people at the temple in the land Bountiful. After a day of teaching, healing, and building faith, Jesus directed the people’s attention to the rising generation: “He commanded that their little children should be brought.”¹ He prayed for them and blessed them one by one. The experience was so moving that the Savior Himself wept multiple times. Then, speaking to the multitude, Jesus said:

“Behold your little ones.“  And as they looked … they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven,” ministering to their children.²

I have often thought about this experience. It must have melted every person’s heart! They saw the Savior. They felt Him. They knew Him. He taught them. He blessed them. And He loved them. It’s no wonder that after this sacred event, these children grew up to help establish a society of peace, prosperity, and Christlike love that lasted for generations.³

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our children could have experiences like that with Jesus Christ—something that would bind their hearts to Him! He invites us, as He invited those parents in the Book of Mormon, to bring our little ones to Him. We can help them know their Savior and Redeemer the way these children did. We can show them how to find the Savior in the scriptures and build their foundations on Him.⁴

Recently, a good friend taught me something I hadn’t noticed before about the parable of the wise man who built his house upon a rock. According to the account in Luke, as the wise man laid the foundation for his house, he “digged deep.”⁵ It wasn’t a casual or simple endeavor—it took effort!

To build our lives on the rock of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, we need to dig deep. We remove anything that is sandy or superfluous in our lives. We keep digging until we find Him. And we teach our children to bind themselves to Him through sacred ordinances and covenants so that when the oppositional storms and floods come, as they surely will, they will have little effect upon them “because of the rock upon which [they] are built.”⁶

This kind of strength doesn’t just happen. It is not passed on to the next generation like a spiritual inheritance. Each person must dig deep to find the rock.

We learn this lesson from another account in the Book of Mormon. When King Benjamin gave his final address to his people, they gathered as families to hear his words.⁷ King Benjamin bore powerful witness of Jesus Christ, and the people were deeply moved by his testimony. They declared: “The Spirit … has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts. …“And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will … all the remainder of our days.”⁸

One might expect that little children with such deeply converted parents would eventually become converted and make covenants themselves. And yet, for some reason not mentioned in the record, the covenant made by the parents did not get traction with some of their children. Several years later “there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers. “They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ. … “And they would not be baptized; neither would they join the church. And they were a separate people as to their faith.”⁹

What a sobering thought! For the rising generation, it’s not enough for faith in Jesus Christ to be “the tradition of their fathers.” They need to own faith in Christ for themselves. As the covenant people of God, how can we instill within the hearts of our children a desire to make and keep covenants with Him?    ~ For Brother Newman’s complete talk, click: ‘Preserving the Voice or the Covenant People. . . . (Page 36 of November 2023 Ensign).