Yesterday I was counseling with one of my kids concerning a hard situation in which he finds himself. As we talked, a scripture from the book of Alma came to mind.
“Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.” Alma 37:6-7
This scripture is Alma counseling his son Helaman. I shared my insights into these verses, things that I have learned in my own life, and gave what was hopefully some sage advice. Sometimes it is hard to know exactly what to say to a child who is in the midst of a difficult time of life, but often I feel like the Spirit is feeding me information and this was one of those moments.
As I was pondering on that later in the day, I was reminded of just many times a parent counsels a child in the Book of Mormon: Lehi and all his sons, Alma the elder to Alma the Younger, Mosiah to his sons, Mormon to Moroni, and Alma the younger to Helaman and his other sons, just to name a few. That thought was followed by another reminding me that the Book of Mormon was written for us, the saints living in the last dispensation. While the principles contained therein are eternal, they were recorded and later translated to give us the knowledge we would need to come unto Christ and to thrive in the midst of the adversities of these last days.
Two years ago, I mentioned the fact that the parenting manuals don’t have a section on how to counsel your kids when they are living through a pandemic. Yesterday I had a realization that perhaps just such a parenting manual exists. No, the Book of Mormon does not tell us exactly what to say to a child who is freaking out because they have been quarantined, but its principles do teach us how to navigate through our troubled world and how to find joy as we do so. It contains lessons on how to find peace in troubled times, how to remain righteous as the world around becomes increasingly more wicked, what we need to do to gain eternal life, and countless others. And yes, it does in fact contain some amazing examples of how to be a good parent in the last days. In its very first chapters, we meet Lehi who is the parent of some very righteous as well as some very rebellious children and chronicles the many struggles his family faces.
In the past several years as we have focused on other books of scripture for “Come Follow Me,” I have chosen to include a topical study of the Book of Mormon to my study plans. I think my next area of study will be to look for counsel on parenting and family relationships. After all, the family is the basic unit of both society and eternity, and we know that all we do and all we learn in the church is to help us to be worthy to participate in the covenants that seal us to our loved ones forever.
Mother’s Day was two days ago. Nathan was able to call and played a lovely little piano arrangement for me in honor of the day. Unfortunately, the video chatting programs all have elements meant to factor out background noise which means music doesn’t work well over the web. But he played it anyway and then recorded it and sent a video. Nathan and Malia made me a lovely little ring tree when they had their ceramics outing earlier in the year. They gave it to me before Nathan left in March because Malia wanted him to be here when it was gifted. I laughed out loud when I opened it because it is in the shape of a cactus, and they had included a comment stating that it was a plant that would never die. They know I struggle with house plants. 😂
People tell me all the time that Kev and I have done a great job raising our kids. I counter that by telling them that we were blessed with great kids, and we have just helped them along on their journeys through life. We honestly feel that way. Every day I feel immense gratitude for the opportunity to be their mother and for the impact they have had on my life. Raising them has made me a better person, has taught me to love and serve in a way nothing else could, and has enriched my life in countless ways. I’m constantly humbled by the fact that the Lord trusted me to raise these kids.
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