Parenting & Family Quote by Thomas S. Monson

Monson’s counsel lands with the quiet authority of someone who never had to sell “follow your bliss” to an anxious congregation. It’s domestic, practical, and deliberately unsentimental: pick work that pays, because love doesn’t cover the mortgage and children don’t eat inspiration. Coming from a clergyman, that bluntness is the point. He’s sanctifying bread-and-butter realism, framing provision not as crass materialism but as moral stewardship.

The phrasing does a lot of work. “Choose a field” narrows the romantic idea of vocation into a manageable decision, closer to training than destiny. “Sufficient remuneration” borrows the language of wages and budgets, but “provide adequately” softens it into a standard of care rather than status. The emotional center sits in “your companion and your children”: Monson makes work an expression of loyalty, not self-expression. It’s a subtle rebuke to a culture that treats careers as identity projects and families as optional accessories.

“I bear testimony” signals the context: Latter-day Saint speech patterns where testimony is not a hot take but a witness statement. He’s not debating; he’s asserting lived certainty, likely shaped by pastoral exposure to financial strain, marital stress, and the downstream effects of unstable work. The subtext is that economic fragility can erode spiritual and relational life, so prudence becomes a form of devotion. In an era that celebrates risk and personal branding, Monson’s message insists that responsibility is its own kind of calling.