Divine Nature #1

Assigned reading: "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", 2 Peter1; Alma 7:23-24; Doctrine and Covenants 121: 45

Qualities a Daughter of God should have (x = repeated several times)

faith
humble
submissive
gentle
hope
temperance x
patience x
virtue x
knowledge
kindness x
charity xx


For those whom I've called recently, you know which of these qualities I've definitely been working on. Patience is definitely number 1, next to temperance (had to look up this word). Being a single parent is hard, having a spouse that is not consistently around is just as hard. This week has been such as one as I needed this particular value this week.

Monday was great! My first official FHE dedicated to making my family run more smoothly (another value experience). My kids were happy, we painted chore markers for our family chore chart. This took no patience at all.

Wednesday everything changed. It's very hard to teach the kids I teach. I have been greatly humbled this week. I've considered myself the behavior specialist of a lot of the places I've been, because I can almost always come up with a solution to behavior problems. I've been struggling because I can't with a group of the students I teach. I have been told that I will get used to the foul language, the disrespect, the lack of parent assistance in these matters. But I'm not sure I want to. The thing I have learned is that I must turn heavenward and let the Lord guide me.
After some serious prayer, I went back to work somewhat renewed with a new idea and low and behold, my behavior problems have all been suspended for 5 days, for other things. This gives me an opportunity to implement my behavior intervention with the good kids and get them trained, so they can help me train the others. The Lord works in mysterious ways and this was certainly one of the ways I needed most.

So how do I develop these qualities of a daughter of God? Through life. I learn through my mistakes, by trial and error and definitely through faith in the Lord. I love this gospel and love knowing there is a Father in Heaven who will help me when I'm really down. What an amazing blessing I have been given.

Personal Progress Conference

Saturday was our Ward's personal Progress Conference for our Young Women. One of our young women organized it and the leaders helped her make it successful. It was awesome. We completed 7 of 8 values, and the last one was a family home evening that each girl got to take home to do. I was glad that we had the number we had. We had almost all of our active young women show up, on a saturday at 8:00, it was impressive. Thanks Kelsey for your work!

Divine Nature #2

As I begin my journey through Personal Progress experiences, again, I decided to really focus the remainder of this year on Divine Nature. I've been having a really rough time balancing all my duties to my family, as well as my duties to my job. I need the reminder of who I am and I thought this was the perfect place to begin. (If you hadn't guessed I'm back in the young women's presidency, this time as first counselor.)

So what does the church publish about being a mother? The Family: A Proclamation to the World is a great piece of reading, that helps establish exactly what it takes to make a successful family and marriage. As a mother it states that we are responsible to raise our children "in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live."

Wow! That's a lot to take in and it's not even everything. I've got the easy stuff down pat: the providing for their physical needs-easy. Even raising them in love easy. It's the rest that I can't do alone. I can be the example of righteousness, of loving and serving others, and even of how to be a law-abiding citizen. I can directly the commandments of God and of the laws. I can pray that they will head my teachings, but ultimately it comes down to them. Will they make the right choices? This is the part I have a hard time with. I have to learn that if I've done all I can do to teach them the "right" ways, and they still make poor choices, I'm not responsible for their choices. How do I not feel guilty, how to I accept that I did everything I could?

Thus the reason for my choosing this value to work on first--I can't do everything. I will feel guilty, there is no getting around that-probably every parent would. But here's where the Lord comes into play--He will help. I have to ask Him for the comfort, for the guidance even before they may their decisions. I must ask Him for the "right" way to teach my children. To make sure they are getting what they need. I AM NOT ALONE!!!! And as long as I keep praying for His help, I'll get it. Thank-you Father for the many blessings I have, especially for my monkeys-they do make me so happy.3322333'2hgfffwss

File Folder Games

So my next big goal is to create a file box full of church file folder games without spending a fortune. I've found several sites, and thought I'd start sharing them. So I've created a link list for children's activities. If anyone has any great sites to share of file folder games or other church related QUIET activities, I'd love to have them to share. I'm planning a day with some of my church girl friends to create some for our young families. I'm looking forward to adult time.

I must be a prude!

I decided that I certainly must be a prude. I recently chaperoned a school dance at my school. I spent the whole three hours telling kids to give each other space, and shining a flashlight at their lower halves. If I had been in charge I probably would have turned off the music and told them the dance was over if that kind of dancing didn't stop. The sad part if it all is that if their parents had been there to see them they probably would have done nothing about it. Dancing close is one thing, grinding is another.

No New Pictures

It is amazing how destructive kids can be. I now have a laptop with half of it's keys missing. A desktop with a broken disk drive thanks to a screwdriver that fit perfectly into all the USB ports in the front, a printer that has a default error due to kids pulling papers off the printer before they were finished printing, and a digital camera that has been taken and dropped so many times it has to be kept together with electrical tape. Of course all of this had to happen right after the holidyays when there is no money to replace them. But, I guess I know where some our tax refund will be going. So, No New Pictures for a while.