"These, Our Little Ones"

The title of this post is also the title of an article that I was so fortunate to read yesterday morning and I would like to share a little from it because it left me feeling responsible and inspired. The article was from this month's issue of the Ensign (its an LDS church magazine with wonderful articles and stories in it, some of which are written by the leaders of the LDS church). This article, in particular, was written by the leader of our church, President Gordon B. Hinckley. In the article President Hinckley talks about the joy and responsibility children are to their parents. He quotes Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

I didn't realize until I had a child that parents are 100% responsible for raising their children. Like many would say who know anything about early childhood development or education, children learn so much within the first few years of their life. Habits and personalities are developed young. The attributes I try to teach Brody he will most likely keep with him his whole life. If I want a child who is kind and nice to everyone he meets no matter who they are or where they come from, then I need to teach Brody to be kind and nice AND he needs to see examples of kindness and love. Regarding kindness and love, here is another quote from this article, "Do you want a spirit of love to grow in the world? Then begin within the walls of your own home. Behold your little ones, and see within them the wonders of God, from whose presence they have recently come." There are also so many other qualities that I want to teach Brody, such as respect, manners, honesty, understanding, tolerance, common sense, and I want to teach him about the Lord and his son Jesus Christ. Being a mother and father is an amazing experience but there is also so much responsibility and power that come with those roles.

President Hinckley also went on to name four imperatives in reference to children 1) love them 2) teach them 3) respect them 4) pray with them and for them. I think those four imperatives, as he refers to them, are such wonderful tools of parent. Though they seem very obvious I really think that, when making decisions in raising children, those four imperatives should always be considered.

I could go on and on about this article but I shouldn't so I will instead just say that of course this article affected me so much because I am a mother with a young child and I think a lot about how well I am doing as a parent: Am I using too harsh of a tone? Does he watch TV too much? Is it better that I read him the book or let him look at the book on his own? Does he play too much? I know that some of that is just the life of a parent and the worries and concerns never stop. But this article made me think more about how I am as a parent at this stage in my child's life, when he is so young and impressionable.

My favorite quote from this article was when President Hinckley quoted someone else, E.T. Sullivan, "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 mothers 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."