A Parent's Promise...

 

The Nobility of Gender Difference...

Photo: Lydia Stewart

If you try to teach young people that there are no essential differences between men and women, that brings chaos into the whole social fabric.  You take away the nobility, and the beauty, and the dignity of gender differences, and then try to get men and women to be good men and women... it won't happen.

-John Eldredge, Absent

A Bit of Heaven...

Photo: Lydia Stewart

“If we really try, our home can be a bit of heaven here on earth. The thoughts we think, the deeds we do, the lives we live influence not only the success of our earthly journey; they mark the way to our eternal goals”

-Thomas S. Monson

Virtuous and Lovely Examples

We must model that which is virtuous and lovely by our personal media choices. We must take care that the media we invite into our homes does not dull the sensitivity to the Spirit, harm relationships with our family and friends, or reveal personal priorities that are inconsistent with gospel principles. By example we can help our children understand that spending long periods of time using the Internet, social media, and cell phones; playing video games; or watching television keeps us from productive activities and valuable interactions with others.

-Mary N. Cook, 1^st Counselor in the General Young Women’s Presidency

I Am Rich…

"I am not heartsick because I am rich and they are poor."
"We're not rich, Papa. We're..."
"Yes we are boy. We have one another to tend to, and this land to tend. And one day we'll own it outright. We have Solomon here to wind up a capstan and help us haul our burdens. (...) We have Daisy's hot milk. We got rain to wash up with, to get the grime off us. We can look at sundown and see it all, so that it wets the eye and hastens the heart. We hear all the music that's in the wind, so much music that it itches my feet to start tapping. Just like a fiddle."

-Robert Newton Peck, “A Day No Pigs Would Die”

Now and Then…

“Yes, people get around faster than they used to, but I don’t think they’re any happier.”

“You know how it is raising kids. You find out they’re alive, and then you want to kill ‘em.”

Jim May, “The Farm on Nippersink Creek”

The Source of Pure Truth

With technology today, information on a myriad of subjects is available with the click of a keystroke. It is easy to get caught in the trap of looking to the “arm of flesh” for advice on everything from how to raise children to how to find happiness. While some information has merit, as members of the Church we have access to the source of pure truth, even God Himself. We would do well to search out answers to our problems and questions by investigating what the Lord has revealed through His prophets. With that same technology today, we have at our fingertips access to the words of the prophets on nearly any subject.

-Kevin R. Duncan, Of the Quorum of the Seventy

Precious Children

"It is our solemn duty, our precious privilege—even our sacred opportunity—to welcome to our homes and to our hearts the children who grace our lives."

Thomas S. Monson

Tomorrow is a new day...

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you will begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Nature to Nurture...

"Satan is always attempting to undermine the most precious element of a woman's divine nature—the nature to nurture."A mother-daughter relationship is where a daughter learns how to nurture by being nurtured. She is loved. She is taught and experiences firsthand what it feels like to have someone care about her enough to correct her while continuing to encourage and believe in her at the same time."

M. Russell Ballard

Fatherhood

"Most men worry about succeeding in their life's work and spend much time and effort at their profession. But I've learned that the way to put one's professional life in order is to put one's personal life in order. How can we be adequate at anything professionally without being adequate as men, husbands, and fathers first?"

James E. Faust, "Brethren, Love Your Wives," Ensign, July 1981, 3

Home is our Family...

Photo: Ben Romney, Europe

Our home is our family, not our possessions.

-Christina Gregory, Dear America Series: Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie

Truth

Photo: Ben Romney, Europe

Why do grown ups think it is easier to hear secrets then the truth? Don't they know about the horror stories we imagine to explain the secrets?

-Cornelia Funke, Inkheart

Don't Overschedule

Photo: Ben Romney, Europe

"Don't overschedule yourselves or your children. We live in a world that is filled with options. If we are not careful, we will find every minute jammed with social events, classes, exercise time, book clubs, scrapbooking, Church callings, music, sports, the Internet, and our favorite TV shows. One mother told me of a time that her children had 29 scheduled commitments every week: music lessons, Scouts, dance, Little League, day camps, soccer, art, and so forth. She felt like a taxi driver."

M. Russell Ballard, "Daughters of God, Ensign," May 2008, 109–10

The child that tests you most...

The key to a successful family is how you treat the child who tests you the most. Be grateful for that one child because it gives an example to the rest that shows you are a principle centered parent.

-Steven Covey, Living the Seven Habits

Virture

Photo: Ben Romney, Europe

Highlights from: "Let Virtue Garnish Your Thoughts," By Bishop H. David Burton

Virtuous traits form the foundation of a Christian life and are the outward manifestation of the inner man.

Teaching virtuous traits begins in the home with parents who care and set the example.

By remaining steadfast, parents so very often suffer and agonize more than the children they endeavor to teach.

It is difficult for a person to display virtuous traits if he or she lacks integrity. Without integrity, honesty is often forgotten. If integrity is absent, civility is impaired. If integrity is not important, spirituality is difficult to maintain.

Traits of virtue broadly practiced can loosen Satan’s firm grip on society and derail his insidious plan to capture the hearts, minds, and spirits of mortal men.

Family

Photo: Ben Romney, Europe

The greatest joys and the greatest sorrows we experience are in family relationships. The joys come from putting the welfare of others above our own. That is what love is. And the sorrow comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love. The ideal God holds for us is to form families in the way most likely to lead to happiness and away from sorrow. A man and a woman are to make sacred covenants that they will put the welfare and happiness of the other at the center of their lives. Children are to be born into a family where the parents hold the needs of children equal to their own in importance. And children are to love parents and each other.

-Henry B. Eyring

Quiet Ways...

"Let us lower our voices in our homes. Let love abound and find expression in our actions. May we walk the quiet ways of the Lord, and may prosperity crown our labors."

Gordon B. Hinckley

Fathers and Sons

Photo: Ben Romney, Europe

Highlights from "Fathers and Sons: A Remarkable Relationship" Elder M. Russell Ballard

"Fathers, you are the primary model of manhood for your sons. You are their most meaningful mentor, and believe it or not, you are their hero in countless ways. Your words and your example are a great influence on them."

"Ask your father for advice. Let’s be honest: he is probably going to give you his advice whether you ask for it or not, but it just works so much better when you ask! Ask for his advice on Church activity, on classes, on friends, on school, on dating, on sports or other hobbies. Ask for his counsel on your Church assignments, on preparing for your mission, on decisions or choices you have to make. Nothing shows respect for another person as much as asking for his advice, because what you are really saying when you ask for advice is, “I appreciate what you know and the experiences you have had, and I value your ideas and suggestions.” Those are nice things for a father to hear from his son."

"And oh, how fathers need to listen. Remember, conversation where you do 90 percent of the talking is not a conversation. Use the word “feel” as often as you comfortably can in your discussions with your sons. Ask: “How do you feel about what you’re learning in that class?” “How do you feel about what your friend said?” “How do you feel about your priesthood and the Church?”
Don’t think you have to try to fix everything or solve everything during these visits. Most of the time, the best thing you can do is just listen. Fathers who listen more than they talk find that their sons share more about what is really going on in their lives."

The Work of Eternity...

There is no area of parental action that is more needful of heavenly guidance or more likely to receive it than the decisions of parents in raising their children and governing their families. This is the work of eternity.
-Dallin H. Oaks