I really took away a lot of insights from this lesson because it is teaching me different parenting practices and styles. Although the number one point that I want to tell all of you about is the importance of the temple with families. In one of the chapters for this week's lesson I read about was about children becoming lost in their lives and the power of temple covenants that the parents made that kept the families together. To be honest, that is one of my deepest fears, is having children who fall away from the church but I have a personal testimony of families and that when we are all sealed, we can help those come back to the gospel. In this chapter it really focused on the importance of temple covenants and when people make them, there is a greater safety with being in the gospel. President Joseph Field Smith, a prophet of the church, said this "Being heirs [to the kingdom, through the sealing ordinance] they have claims upon the blessings of the gospel beyond what those not so born are entitled to receive. They may receive a greater guidance, a greater protection, a greater inspiration from the Spirit of the Lord; and then there is no power that can take them away from their parents... . Those born under the covenant, throughout all eternity, are the children of their parents. Nothing except the unpardonable sin, or sin unto death, can break this tie." This quote from my book really calmed by soul because I worry about my future children and I know that Heavenly Father has a special place in his heart for each and every one of us and will help us as we ask in our times of need. This chapter also made me realize that as parents calmly and slowly offer help and are always inviting and loving, children will slowly come back. The bottom line is to not loose faith and to keep doing what you know is right, and when the time is right those lost sheep will return and it will be a joyous reunion either on this earth or in heaven.
So I am going to end by boring (just kidding :) all of you with my final thoughts on parenting styles and practices. So in my last blog post I talked about parenting styles but practices are a little different. Practices are the way we teach and interact with our children. Now in different cultures people can treat their children differently but I have also realized that we need to talk and discipline each one of our children differently because they are all individuals and do not learn or act the same. There is also something called psychological control versus behavioral control. Barber (an author from the book) says this on psychological control, "a rather insidious type of control that potentially inhibits or intrudes upon psychological development through manipulation and exploitation of the parent-child bond (e.g., love-withdrawal and guilt induction), negative affect-laden expressions and criticisms (e.g., disappointment and shame), and excessive personal control (e.g., possessiveness, protectiveness)." Soooo by that discription I think we should all just agree to never do that, because I sure would not like to be treated like that by my parents. The way in which the books tells us is best is teaching children that they're behaviors are wrong and hold them accountable for their wrong doings.
Now again, I am no expert or parent yet but I know that as we cleave to our covenants and guide our children the best we can like Christ guides His, we will have help and be blessed and so will our children.
It is so funny how things "pop" up when you are needing ideas. As I am writing this post I saw an article on Facebook from Deseret News on effective ways of parenting. If you are interested check it out here!
One last thing, below is a Mormon Message that just came out on the parable of the prodigal son, I think this is very relevant to this lesson and we all need to remember to love and cherish those children who choose the right as well so jealously does not overcome their souls. This also shows that all of children may become lost for different reasons but through love and faith our families can bring themselves back together.
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