Monday, April 12, 2010

Parents and Children


On Easter weekend we had our General Conference for church as I have mentioned a few times if you are a regular reader. The main thread throughout the conference was that we are responsible for the teaching of our children. As parents who follow Christ, it is my opinion that we need to unite and fortify our children in righteousness so that they can withstand the ways of the world and be steadfast in our values and serving the Lord.

I saw this beautiful poem and thought it applicable to what I have been pondering this week. However, I think it does apply to both sons and daughters equally.

A careful woman I ought to be:
A little girl follows me;
I do not dare to go a stray
For fear she’ll go the self-same way.
I cannot once escape her eyes;
What’er she sees me do,
she tries
Like me, she says,
she ’s going to be,
The little girl who follows me.
She thinks that I am good and fine,
Believes in every word of mine;
The bad in me she must not see,
The little girl who follows me.I must remember as I go,
Through summer’s sun and winter’s snow,
I am building for the years to be,
For a little girl follows me.
-Author Unknown

I hope we would all agree that this training up of a child in the ways of Christ are also one of the privileges of the grandparents. I believe it is one of our scared duties to testify of Christ to our grandchildren and make sure that they know that our long lives and experience have taught us that these things of Christ are true. I think it is important they know that the commandments are for their protection, not their restriction.

The church puts out a beautiful, free booklet called "For The Strength of Youth" that is absolutely excellent in listing and discussing the standards of virtue, that if upheld, will protect and fortify each young person. I also believe there is nothing in the booklet that does not equally apply to any adult.


After our discussion about this in church I picked up a few booklets for our grandkids yesterday. They are not 12 yet but Piper, Connor and Spencer are getting close enough. I know they get these teachings in their homes but I want them to know their grandparents back up their parents 100% and pray for their safety in the crazy world every day.
Obedience brings safety.

One thing I love about Christ's church community is that we have the best interest of all the youth at heart and all work together to strengthen them.

So even if you are not a parent or if your kids are grown or away, everything we do and say has a potentially positive or negative teaching moment attached to it.
It is by small and simple things that great things are brought to pass. By standing steadfast as an example we can help build His kingdom. One of the biggest blessings of Christ's plan is it is the plan of happiness.


Being a woman I am especially excited about the role of mothers in this process of nurturing, loving and teaching a child. Who has a better opportunity to seize the teaching moments on a daily basis? Who knows the child better than his or her mother? Who can see the danger signs better if they live by the spirit and pay attention? Who will be held more accountable if these sacred duties are neglected? Who can imagine the dire consequences of taking this stewardship lightly? Who can fathom the harm it could do to the people you love most in all the world. On the other side who can imagine more joy than hearing that all her children walk in truth?
3 John 1:4


The beauty of life at our age is that this applies not only to our children but to our grandchildren in equal portions. It give me an overwhelming desire to want to be a missionary for the cause of Christ every minute of my life. A little bit here and a little bit there we build our family as we build His kingdom. We are so pleased with the outstanding job our kids are doing with their kids. They make our job easy!

And those are my thoughts this rainy, Monday afternoon.

Love, Bonnie/Mom ♥ ♥ ♥

3 comments:

sistersusiesays said...

What a wonderful post! As a public school teacher, if I could only get this message across to the parents of my students. So many of them are starved for guidance; not just the students, but the parents too. I praise my LORD that I had parents who sought out the LORD and His Word. Thank you again for this beautiful post.
Love in our LORD,
Susie

Bonnie said...

That is so true, Susie. The world is anxious to know what the Lord has provided. You can look up For the Strength of Youth on Google and get an outline of the things in the booklet. Maybe you could pass it out to the parents if you like it. I am sure you would knowing what a fine Christian you are. You could probably get copies of the booklet directly! let me know if I can help you. I can send you one too.

Nellie's Cozy Place said...

Morning Bonnie,
what a great post, I agree with every word. It is so true that obedience brings safety and happiness, but sometimes the youth of today just can't see that for some reason, course, we know who blinds their eyes. I think the thought that nothing can ever happen to me, the old invinceablility thing, hurts so many people, I could
never relate to that thinking, I just don't know what it is, I think it is a sort of denial again
helped along by the enemy of our soul.
The bible tells us as we walk on the way, as we sit down and rise up we should talk with our children about the Lord and teach them his precepts, and of course, the very most important thing is to live the life, and even if they stray from the faith for a bit they can not deny what they saw practiced, and God's word never returns void. The Lord loves our children more than we do, which is so hard as a parent for us to believe that at times, but it is so true, and that means He will do what it takes to get them where they need to be, but it does not relieve us of our responsiblity as parents. And I love what you have to say about grandparents cause we feel the same. Grandparents can be an invaluable resource especially when kids get to be teenagers,
especially when they start pulling away from their parents, if they have Godly grandparents that have
a good relationship with them they
can be very helpful in helping direct their lives.
Even tho we are only grandparents to grandaughter dogs I tease my children that I have already had them in church. Cause I used to fill the pew racks, and we have taken them up there with us a few times, and my kids get a laugh out of that~~ so it will be with our grandchildren when we ever have any!! lol
It will be a joy to be able to teach a new generation about the joys and benefits and pleasure of serving our lord Jesus.

Talked to Beck yesterday and she has just been taking it easy, but seems like her knee is just bruised nothing worse thank the Lord. I didn't even know that she
had fallen until I read your post,
so I called her and it had happened on Saturday. She had told me mid week that she was going to the chiropractor and I thought that was from the fall and I was thinking can't believe she didn't tell me she fell, but it was after I talked to her, and the chiropractor was for something else.

No, bathroom isn't finished yet, we still have woodwork to paint, but making the choice for the shower curtain was holding up progress as far as picking my
accessories like towels, pictures, toothbrush holders that kind of stuff. So now I am working on that and hoping and praying to get some
painting done this week. We were just so wiped out the last 2 weeks, think it was from the daylight savings time switch cause we have been up later than normal,
plus the oak pollen count has been very high, and we were worn out too cause every Sunday the family was here, so we didn't get our usual nap times. So this week we
are feeling much better, Thank the Lord.
Well, gotta get busy,
Love ya, Nellie