Fathers and mothers should feel that a duty devolves upon them to guide the affections of the youth, that they may be placed upon those who will be suitable companions. They should ... so mold the character of the children from their earliest years that they will be pure and noble, and will be attracted to the good and true....
True love is a high and holy principle, altogether different in character from that love which is awakened by impulse, and which suddenly dies when severely tested. It is by faithfulness to duty in the parental home that the youth are to prepare themselves for homes of their own. Let them here practice self-denial, and manifest kindness, courtesy, and Christian sympathy. Thus love will be kept warm in the heart, and he who goes out from such a household to stand at the head of a family of his own, will know how to promote the happiness of her whom he has chosen as a companion for life.
Fathers and mothers, you are to build up in this life characters which will help you to fit your children for the future, immortal life, which will help them to form such characters that you will not be ashamed to see them, as parents, taking the charge of their own children, and transferring to them your own attributes.
Let those who are contemplating marriage weigh every sentiment and watch every development of character in the one with whom they think to unite their life destiny.
Take God and your God-fearing parents into your counsel, young friends. Pray over the matter.... The step you are about to take is one of the most important in your life, and should not be taken hastily. While you may love, do not love blindly.
Let every step toward a marriage alliance be characterized by modesty, simplicity, sincerity, and an earnest purpose to please and honor God. FLB 277
He required all the stronger divine support and comfort which His Father was ready to impart to Him, to Him who had, for the benefit of man, left the joys of heaven and chosen His home in a cold and thankless world. Christ found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. Here He could unburden His heart of the sorrows that were crushing Him. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Pr 173
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 (King James Version)