Last weekend I had the opportunity to listen to General
Conference. As I listened many thoughts
came to my mind, but it seems Elder L. Tom Perry’s talk hit me the deepest. In his talk Elder L. Tom Perry discussed the
important roles that both a mother and a father play in a child’s life. He
stated, “The most powerful teaching a child will ever receive will come from
concerned and righteous fathers and mothers.”
As he said this I reflected on my own role at home as a wife and
mother. Immediately several instances
came to my mind. The first one was about a year ago when my daughter Paislee
was only two years old. From the time
Paislee was born she has received many priesthood blessings for various reasons. One day I was not feeling very well and had
told Paislee that she needed to be extra good that day because I was sick. All of a sudden I felt two little hands on
the top of my head and heard Paislee begin to whisper a prayer asking our
heavenly father to help me so that I would feel better. This showed me that although Paislee, at two
years old did not fully understand the priesthood, she had a great foundation
of knowledge knowing that when someone is sick and they get a “prayer” that they
can be healed. The second instance happened
just last week. I had just put the girls
in my van and was heading downtown to run some errands for the day. My husband
had driven my van the night before and when I got in I found what I think was ranch
dressing had been dripped all over my steering wheel and my seat. I immediately stated my frustrations, cleaned
the mess up and forgot all about it.
That afternoon as Ty walked in from work Paislee immediately walked up
to him and told him how much trouble he was in because he had spilled ranch
dressing in my car and had not cleaned it up.
Seeing her react like this made me stop and think about how my initial reaction
had impacted her so much that hours later after I had already forgotten about
the situation she felt she needed to make sure her dad knew he was “in trouble”. Elder Perry said “sometimes we find
ourselves in situations when we have the opportunity to teach children a lesson
which will have a lasting effect on their young lives, a successful parent
should never be too busy to capture a moment in a child’s life when an
important lesson can be taught.” As we
go through each day we have the opportunity to teach our children many lessons
in life. They are like sponges, they absorb
everything, both the good and the bad.
One of my all time favorite scriptures is found in Helaman 5:12. It
says, “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our
Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation;
that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the
whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it
shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless
wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a
foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall”. As a young mother I often feel overwhelmed with
life in general and feel that I fall short of being the ideal wife and
mother. I find comfort in this scripture and the
promises that it makes. Although I am
far from perfect, I know that the lord will be there to help me every step of
the way. I can only hope and pray as I
strive to teach my girls that that they will remember more of the good things than
the bad.
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