September 24, 2010

Tonight I read a talk from the last General Conference called Watching With All Perseverance by Elder David A. Bednar. He speaks of early spiritual warning signs that can be used to help protect and direct our families. He gives three "basic components" of an early warning system parents can use with an amazing promise attached. He says that, "parents who do these things faithfully will be blessed to recognize early signals of spiritual growth in or challenges with their children and be better prepared to receive inspiration to strengthen and help those children." As a parent, that would be a wonderful blessing to me. I want to follow this system. The three things he says to do are:

1. Read and talk about the Book of Mormon with your children
2. Bear testimony of gospel truths spontaneously with your children
3. Invite children as gospel learners to act and not merely be acted upon

He pointed out that "youth of all ages, even infants, can and do respond to the distinctive spirit of the Book of Mormon." I thought that was a good point to make because I have put off reading the actual Book of Mormon together as a family because of feeling that my son is too young. But I believe that is true, that he can still benefit greatly from the spirit reading that book will invite into our family and our home. I can also see how I can take more spontaneous opportunities to teach him and share with him my feelings about gospel principles. And I was struck by this question: "Are you and I helping our children become agents who act and seek learning by study and by faith, or have we trained our children to wait to be taught and acted upon?" That is an important question and I really really want my children to learn and to be agents.

I think I have a tendency to fall into patterns of training them to wait for things to be done for them for my own convenience, rather than taking the time to teach how to do something themselves. I know my son is just two months shy of 2 years old, not very old, but old enough that I can see in myself some parenting habits I've developed that I want to change so I can better help teach him how to be an :agent who act[s] and seek[s] learning by study and faith." This was a great talk with advice I want to implement and always remember.