Sunday Spiritual Thought - Raising our children in righteousness.

I have decided that I am going to try and do a spiritual thought each Sunday.  I enjoy studying, learning, and being spiritually uplifted.  And I think it's important to record things like this too.

The past few weeks my thoughts have been heavily focused on how to effectively teach and rear my children in the gospel.  I have become keenly aware of how imperative the choices I make with my children will effect the people they become.  This great responsibility weighs heavy on my shoulders, and yet I know my Father in Heaven trusted me with this great role.  My greatest desire is to return to my Father in Heaven, fulfilling my responsibility as a mother, having taught my children the gospel and helped them to know their Savior, and being granted the greatest gift of having a celestial, eternal family!

This month's visiting teaching message was titled: "Our Responsibility to Nurture the Rising Generation".  It states, Without nurturing, our rising generation could be in danger of becoming like the one described in Mosiah 26.  Many youth didn't believe in the traditions of their fathers and became a separate people as to their faith, remaining so ever after.  It goes on to say, So what is it that will keep the rising generation safe?  In the church, we teach saving principles, and those principles are family principles, the principles that help the rising generation to form a family, teach that family, and prepare that family for ordinances and covenants- and then the next generation will teach the next and so on.  Motherhood and fatherhood are eternal roles and responsibilities.


One of the things Jared and I have discussed is preparing our sons to serve a mission.  Instilling in their young minds and hearts the concept of "when I got on a mission" not "if I go on a mission".  In Matthew 28:19 we learn that there is no greater work;  there is no greater call than teaching "all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

How important is it for our sons to serve a mission?  What difference will it make in their lives?  I will share some of my personal thoughts, and then some other information.  From a young age I decided like many other young women, that I would not marry someone unless they were a returned missionary.  I wanted someone who cherished and loved the Lord above everything else, including me.  Choosing not to go on a mission meant to me, that that person valued something else above the Lord; something else in their life had a higher priority, and I wanted the Lord to be their first priority.  The experience, wisdom and testimony that was gained during Jared's mission has sculpted and molded him into the person he is today.  In addition to the personal growth that was gained from his mission, there are also those people whose lives were changed forever because they were converted to the gospel. 

Richard G. Scott said this of serving a mission:  It would be difficult to imagine anything more exciting to do as a young man, woman, or couple in the world today than to be a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The message of the restored gospel we share is absolutely vital. It is from God our Eternal Father for every one of His children on earth and is centered in His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. When that message is understood and lived, it can replace turmoil with peace, sorrow with happiness and provide solutions to life’s persistent challenges.

During a church meeting last week, my husband learned an interesting statistic.  It was said that 75% of the young men that serve missions are married in the temple.  Only 4% of those that don't serve missions marry in the temple.

As I learned from the visiting teaching message (and also from the Family Proclamation) that our sacred role as parents is to "prepare this rising generation for sacred ordinances and covenants", my thoughts are turned to the temple.  The temple is the place that seals families together forever.  The Prophet Joseph Smith declared that in all ages the divine purpose of gathering the people of God is to build temples so His children can receive the highest ordinances and thereby gain eternal life.

It is my prayer that we can all teach and prepare our children.  It is my hope that we can provide a home where the spirit dwells, where they can have frequent opportunities to feel their Heavenly Father's love.  That they will gain personal testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that they will choose the path of righteousness--  The path that will lead them back to their Heavenly Father.