Well I have good and bad news! I've spared you from my political ramblings, but I haven't blogged in awhile. It's probably better that way. I've had many ideas, but they have been too hard to put into words...I have several unpublished posts that will probably never debut on here. But then again, it's probably better that way. Hopefully you enjoy this post. I hope I get lots of comments!
I was called to serve in my church with the Young Women's Program earlier this year. One of the things we encourage the young women in our church ages 12-18 to do is to work on 8 different values throughout their time in young women. We call this "Personal Progress" and this is how it works according to the overview in the Personal Progress book:
"Personal Progress will help you strengthen your faith in and testimony of Jesus Christ as you learn His teachings and regularly apply them in your life. It will help you strengthen both your present family and your future family. It will help you prepare to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple. And it will prepare you to be a faithful, contributing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Personal Progress program uses the eight Young Women values (faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, and virtue) to help you understand more fully who you are, why you are here on the earth, and what you should be doing as a daughter of God to prepare for the day you go to the temple to make sacred covenants. It will help you prepare for your future roles as a faithful woman, wife, mother, and leader in God’s kingdom. Participating in Personal Progress teaches you to make commitments, carry them out, and report your progress to a parent or leader. The patterns you establish as you work on Personal Progress—such as prayer, scripture study, service, and journal keeping—will become personal daily habits. These habits will strengthen your testimony and help you learn and improve throughout your life."
Well, after I was called to serve in Young Women's I thought it would be insightful to work on personal progress again. I completed it when I was in Young Women's, myself. It has changed a little since then, but overall it still is very similar.
Anyway, I was working on one assignment the other day and it mentioned discussing something with a mother or parent figure. As I am doing this as an adult, I thought it might be fun to get more discussion with some of my peers via blogging about my experiences and seeing what you have to say! So, I hope you have some advice that maybe I can even pass on to the young women at church. :)
I'll start with Faith #2:
Discover the principles of faith taught by the mothers of Helaman’s stripling warriors. Read Alma 56:45–48 and 57:21. Review what “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” says about a mother’s role. With a mother, grandmother, or leader, discuss the qualities a woman needs in order to teach children to have faith and to base their decisions on gospel truths. How can these principles help you in your life today and help you prepare to be a faithful woman, wife, and mother? Record your thoughts and feelings in your journal.
I'll start the discussion. I'm nowhere perfect at this, but here are some of my thoughts as I am a mother and am currently trying to teach faith to my little one. One thing I think a woman needs is to know the scripture through diligent, daily reading. I also think a woman needs to have a good relationship with Heavenly Father through heartfelt, daily prayer. It definitely takes experience though to have faith. I have found my faith strengthened through trials and learning to trust in the Lord and I think our children can tell when we trust in the Lord through our everyday actions and comments. I think that certainly was the case with the stripling warriors. Their families had been through a lot through their conversion and loosing so many when the Lamanites attacked them and then leaving their homeland and even some leaving their right to the throne and living with people they were taught to hate. That takes a lot of faith and the children saw it in their parents.
I'll add more later, I'm anxious to hear what you all have to say.
I'll start the discussion. I'm nowhere perfect at this, but here are some of my thoughts as I am a mother and am currently trying to teach faith to my little one. One thing I think a woman needs is to know the scripture through diligent, daily reading. I also think a woman needs to have a good relationship with Heavenly Father through heartfelt, daily prayer. It definitely takes experience though to have faith. I have found my faith strengthened through trials and learning to trust in the Lord and I think our children can tell when we trust in the Lord through our everyday actions and comments. I think that certainly was the case with the stripling warriors. Their families had been through a lot through their conversion and loosing so many when the Lamanites attacked them and then leaving their homeland and even some leaving their right to the throne and living with people they were taught to hate. That takes a lot of faith and the children saw it in their parents.
I'll add more later, I'm anxious to hear what you all have to say.
3 comments:
I know for me, I saw my parents living the Gospel every day. We never missed church unless we were really sick, and we went to stake conference and general conference every time they happened. My mom made us read scriptures every morning. We had family prayer and FHE even though it got progressively more inconvenient as we got older. My parents drove us uncomplainingly to seminary and to YW/YM. And every time we moved, we hauled our food storage with us. I knew it mattered to them and was important to them, so it became important to me.
I am trying to talk more about faith and my testimony. My parents were converts and didn't talk a lot about it in daily living when I was little (or maybe they did and I totally don't remember!!), and I recognize that I need to do that more with my children. I try to express gratitude to the Lord for the little things that happen and to remind my children to give thanks when the rain stops just in time for them to walk to school, or when good things unexpectedly happen to them.
I'm so glad to see you're working on Personal Progress...I am too and it's so different doing it as an adult/leader/mother/wife than I remember it being as a young woman.
To me, some of the qualities a woman needs to teach her children are: patience, endurance, living by example, persistence, and courage.
Patience to teach lessons over and over, or to have scriptures last 4x as long as normal because she's answering question after question.
Endurance to be willing to read scriptures over and over, or to do family home evening or say prayers or go to church every Sunday. I guess persistence is similar to this one :)
Living by example because without it, our children will not see the joy and the benefits that come from gospel living.
Courage to be willing to live the gospel standards not only in front of our families but in front of friends, neighbors and strangers. Courage to stand up for what we know is right, to defend our children, to teach what may be scoffed by those around us.
I loved reading your comments as well and look forward to what others have to say!
I never want my children to think of home and church as two completely different and separate places. As much as I can, I try to integrate music, art, and discussions of a spiritual nature into our daily lives. We read scriptures together and many of the books and videos we have are gospel-related. We also have about a dozen discussions a day about choosing the right. Between church and home, Peyton hear's it so much that she probably thinks "CTR" is a phrase that everybody knows. We are definitely not perfect and I would hardly describe my home as heaven on earth, but we try. Blending gospel/primary teachings into our every day activities is one way i hope to strengthen my children. Teaching them to arm themselves everyday in all that they do now will hopefully make it easier for them to make wise choices when the decisions become harder.
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