This week I dove into reading some of the prefaces of the Book of Mormon including, the title page, the testimony of the 3 witnesses, the testimony of the 8 witnesses, and the testimony of Joseph Smith. I have also studied a lot of related scriptures that explain the importance of obeying God and the value of the golden plates.
Because of some of the choices I have been making lately I feel like I am moving away from the savior and the still small voice is getting harder to hear. When you pile on all of the stresses of day to day life it can be hard to climb out of that rut. Although, I know the only way to get it turned around is to turn to our Savior, this is hard to do when discouraged.
As I started reading the Testimony of Joseph Smith my daughter came into the room and asked if I would read to her. I obliged and started over so she could hear the whole thing. During the reading she asked me questions about the many visits Joseph received from Moroni and about the Urim and Thumim.
My daughter is 10 years old and I figured she knew about the first vision, the Urim and Thumim, etc and I think she did but just forgot. I started to think about my other children and what questions they might have about the gospel. The conversation I had with my daughter made me remember how important the gospel, the church, and the Savior is to me. The only thing I could think about is how I need to share this with my children.
I started to realize my oldest son will be old enough to serve a mission in 4 years my second son in 6 years and my youngest son in 10 years. Then I started asking myself the following questions; Are my boys going to serve a mission? Are my boys preparing themselves to serve a mission? What am I doing to help them prepare? I can't answer the first two question but, I can answer the third question and the answer is that I am not doing enough.
I know that it is through our example as parents that things become important to our children. Right then and there I recommited to doing daily personal and family scripture study, daily family prayers, weekly family home evening, and making an effort to fulfill all of my Priesthood responsibilities and helping and encouraging my children to do the same.
I want to challenge everyone who views this post to take an inventory of your life like I did and reprioritize things if necessary to put the most important things first. Our example to our children can affect many generations of people for good or bad. I hope and pray that as my children continue to grow and develop into adults I can look back and know I made it clear to them that I value and am extremely grateful for the restoration of the gospel.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Justin- Thank you for your blog post. The Spirit touched my heart as I read it. I really appreciate the message of parents doing all they can to prepare their children for the future. My two oldest children are adults. They have chosen to not be members of the church. Every day I question all that I did and all that I didn't do.
ReplyDeleteIn this weeks reading, I read Alma 24 verse 30. It made my heart hurt to think that this verse could relate to my children. I pray that whatever I did and whatever I said- it was enough. I pray that the time will come when they will remember the Gospel and return. I hope that I am doing better with my younger children in helping them to be converted to the truth. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
Debbie, thank you for reading and commenting, the past is the past and we can not do anything to change it. What is important is that we learn from it and make changes to the present and future based on our learning if necessary.
DeleteDebbie, thank you for reading and commenting, the past is the past and we can not do anything to change it. What is important is that we learn from it and make changes to the present and future based on our learning if necessary.
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