A New Day

I remember growing up- my mother and father gathering my siblings and I together for scripture study every day.

Perhaps it is a new day. Maybe I don't have to do it the same way. On the Mormon Channel- at 7:25 is Scripture Stories. Not that I would use this everyday- I still think it is important for the children to read out loud... But I think this could be a fun way to "shake up" scripture reading- I think it will help to keep family scripture study fresh and interesting.

I Can't Keep My House Clean

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny
fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys
scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will
disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

- Thomas S. Monson

Finding Joy in the Journey

Help me with my lesson...

Today I am reading this talk: - This is the "Teachings for our Times lesson that I am teaching this month:
You Know Enough
Elder Neil L. Andersen Of the Presidency of the Seventy

Today's post is some random sections of the talk, combined with my ideas on perhaps how I will teach it, or some thoughts.

While there are many experiences like the one we are having today, full of
spiritual power and confirmation, there are also days when we feel inadequate
and unprepared, when doubt and confusion enter our spirits, when we have
difficulty finding our spiritual footing. Part of our victory as disciples of
Christ is what we do when these feelings come.

Isn't this true... perhaps we can discuss as a class what the best responses to those days and situations are. Maybe- before I read any of the talk, I can have the class write down on a 3 x 5 card what makes them feel close to the Savior.- Then I can have this first quote read, - asking them to remember the most recent of these times in their personal lives, and ask, what the best responses to those days are- asking them to read what they had previously written on their card.

Faith is not only a feeling; it is a decision. He would need to choose faith.

I can ask the class- "what does he mean that faith is not only a feeling, but a decision?" Here- perhaps we could have a little video clip- from Indiana Jones- where he is taking the "steps of faith"- where he has to put his foot forth, and lean forward before the foundation appears under his foot. I could ask the class members to recall times in their lives, big and small where they "chose faith." (maybe I could ask some people ahead of time to do this)

He got on his knees. His spiritual balance returned.

I could ask the class to get up and do some balancing exercises, standing on one foot, bending over to touch the floor- do the yoga tree pose - (I would need to wear just the right outfit that morning)- We could then talk about spiritual balance... Why are we sometimes off balance spiritually- how do we find that balance again? (two knees- on the ground)

Challenges, difficulties, questions, doubts—these are part of our mortality. But
we are not alone. As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have enormous
spiritual reservoirs of light and truth available to us. Fear and faith cannot
coexist in our hearts at the same time. In our days of difficulty, we choose the
road of faith. Jesus said, “Be not afraid, only believe.”4

What are these reservoirs? How do we tap them?

"Choose the road of faith."- "Be not afraid, only believe." These sound so simple- when times are hard, when doubt and fear are all around us- how do we have this as our response?

Hadley Peay is now seven years old. Hadley was born with a very serious hearing
impairment requiring extensive surgery to bring even limited hearing. Her
parents followed with tireless training to help her learn to speak. Hadley and
her family have cheerfully adapted to the challenge of her deafness.
Once,
when Hadley was four, she was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store
with her mother. She looked behind her and saw a little boy sitting in a
wheelchair. She noticed that the boy did not have legs.
Although Hadley had
learned to speak, she had difficulty controlling the volume of her voice. In her
louder voice, she asked her mother why the little boy did not have legs.
Her
mother quietly and simply explained to Hadley that “Heavenly Father makes all of
His children different.” “OK,” Hadley replied.
Then, unexpectedly, Hadley
turned to the little boy and said, “Did you know that when Heavenly Father made
me, my ears did not work? That makes me special. He made you with no legs, and
that makes you special. When Jesus comes, I will be able to hear and you will
get your legs. Jesus will make everything all right.”

What have you learned from children, when it comes to faith?

OK- so if anyone is reading this blog and has any ideas for my lesson- how to make it better- please share :)

3 Nephi 17 Behold Your Little Ones

3 Nephi 17 has always been one of my favorite chapters- for obvious reasons. Who couldn't love the mental picture of Christ showing such personal love and attention for each little child. It reminds me that he loves my little children as well. I don't trust anyone to walk my children across a parking lot. I can't imagine that anyone is as concerned about them as I am- but I know that Christ is.

11 And it came to pass that he commanded that their little children should be brought.

12 So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him

15 He himself also knelt upon the earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him.

16 And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;

17 And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.

18 And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying unto the Father, he arose; but so great was the joy of the multitude that they were overcome.

19 And it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.

20 And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.

21 And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

22 And when he had done this he wept again;

23 And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones.

President Hinkley said this on the subject of children:

Once when our grandchildren were small, my wife and I took some of them to the circus. I recall that I was more interested in watching them and many others of their kind than in watching the man on the flying trapeze. I looked at them in wonder as they alternately laughed and stared wide-eyed at the exciting things before them. And I thought of the miracle of children who become the world’s constant renewal of life and purpose. Observing them in the intensity of their interest, even in this atmosphere, I felt my mind revert to that beautiful and touching scene recorded in the book of 3 Nephi when the resurrected Lord took little children in His arms and wept as He blessed them and said to the people, “Behold your little ones” (3 Nephi 17:23).
It is so obvious that the great good and the terrible evil in the world today are the sweet and the bitter fruits of the rearing of yesterday’s children. As we train a new generation, so will the world be in a few years. If you are worried about the future, then look to the upbringing of your children. Wisely did the writer of Proverbs declare, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
When I was a boy, we lived on a fruit farm in the summer. We grew great quantities of peaches. Our father took us to tree pruning demonstrations put on by the agricultural college. Each Saturday during January and February, we would go out to the farm and prune the trees. We learned that by clipping and sawing in the right places, even when snow was on the ground and the wood appeared dead, we could shape a tree so that the sun would touch the fruit which was to come with spring and summer. We learned that in February we could pretty well determine the kind of fruit we would pick in September.
E. T. Sullivan once wrote these interesting words: “When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.”1
And those babies, I should like to add, will become forces for good or ill, depending in large measure on how they are reared. The Lord, without equivocation, has declared, “I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth” (D&C 93:40).