On Being Great Examples

Hi, I try to teach my sunday school kids that what they do matters - that people watch them. I have a perfect example for them for next week. Today I got a phone call from a lady in the Corvallis ward. She said "I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your children in my ward. I got to work with Amanda in primary and really felt that she was a capable, hard working girl with a strong testimony and love for the kids. I got to work with Ben in the choir and he was so strong and skilled. Now I'm in Relief Society with Rachel and she is such a great addition, she makes great comments which are very insightful. I just thought that you would like to know that." Then she said good-bye and hung up after telling me that her husband likes seeing my husband in action at the monthly meeting he's going to about businesses. Everybody is observed and noticed and is an example - good or bad. I learned when I was teaching seminary that I had to dress right and teach correct principles, because I represented the Lord. When I was a gospel doctrine teacher I never read anything that didn't belong to the lesson that week. FOR ME, that was important. The prophet has asked us to respond to criticism on the internet of mormons and that means we all have to represent the church at all times, in all things and in all places. That means encouraging words and appropriate comments (like on facebook and blogs) and how we play, and what we purchase and how we dress and groom ourselves, all the time. It's hard to live up to sometimes, especially when we want to just 'let our hair down' as they used to say. I have discovered that the more we step up to the responsibilities of being a good example the easier it is to live like that in private too. I also recognize (and hope you do when you watch me) that the gospel of salvation is a gospel of progression i.e., we can get better all the time. As I have told you, the only real competition we face in life is with ourselves and we ask ourselves "Am I better today than I was yesterday, last week, last year, five years ago?" If not, we adjust our lives. I like to think I'm a better Grandmomanator now than I was when you were young and I messed up a lot. It's that principle that turns us into friends and as we each grow up and grow wise, helping each other along the way. I like that about being a family. When I was taking care of Mom and Dad, suddenly it dawned on me one day (I'm not that smart), that I was part of a celestial family that was trying to accomplish a major goal, and we were learning to work together. It seems like we always focus on ourselves - Get a spouse in the temple, start your celestial family, progress. So what I learned is that every family will need to know how to work together to grow. Your Dad got this right early, before he even joined the church. He told me that his family was important and needed to be gently brought up to speed on his becoming a Mormon and that if he showed them that he was serious and persistant that they would accept his baptism and involvement much easier. So all of us are members of a celestial family besides the one that we create. Some of us have disjointed, non-functioning families with siblings or parents that are not clued into what we know, all we can do is remember that God has a plan. We are learning that again in my family as we pray now not as counselors about how God should 'fix' some of the members, but to know God's plan for them and do our best to assist him. After all we are all part of His family. So when we are in that part of our family we also acknowledge the potential that is there of being a celestial family even though right now things aren't looking that way. I'm not a good journal writer. I'm going to try to write things down about my testimony more often. So, here's an entry. And by the way, I'm not preaching, just commenting. I respect and admire each one of my eight children. I believe they are the finest most wonderful and perfect people that ever lived. I watch you, I learn from you, I adore you, you really are special to me. God taught me so much through you and I couldn't possibly love you more and yet I do every day. And I pray for you and for your successes and am thrilled with you all the time. Truly! Loving each of you,Mom