Do My Children Know?

“We all learn "line upon line, precept upon precept” with the goal being, authentic religious faith informing genuine Christlike living. In this there is no place for coercion or manipulation, no place for intimidation or hypocrisy. But no child in this Church should be left with uncertainty about his or her parents devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Restoration of His Church, and the reality of living prophets and apostles, who now as in earlier days, lead that Church according to “the will of the Lord, . . . the mind of the Lord, . . . the word of the Lord,  . . . and the power of God unto salvation. “

Elder Holland, “A Prayer for the Children’, Conference Report, April 2003

I hope that my children  have no "uncertainty about my devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Restoration of His Church, and the reality of living prophets and apostles, who now as in earlier days lead [His] Church"! I have no uncertainty! I know it with every fiber of my being!

Correct Children By Love

There are so many powerful quotes that I have studied this semester in Pathways. I wish I could share them all! I know by personal experience, both my own and what I have observed over many years, that the words from President Joseph F. Smith below are soooooo true!

“Fathers, if you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the gospel, if you wish them to love the truth and understand it, if you wish them to be obedient to and united to you, Love therm! And prove to them that you do love them by your every word or act to them. For your own sake, for the love that should exist between you and your boys - however wayward they might be . . . when you speak or talk to them, do it not in anger, do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit.” 

“Speak to them kindly; get down and weep with them if necessary and get them to feel tenderly toward you. Use no lash and no violence . . . approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned . . . You can’t force your boys, nor your girls into heaven. You may force them to hell, by using harsh means in the efforts to make them good, when you yourselves are not as good as you should be." 

President Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 316-17