The Morris Family: June 2013

Lately, I have been talking and encouraging my children to make good choices. Last week was a hard week in the life of parenthood. The older two were constantly making choices that they knew were the exact opposite of what I had asked to do, or not to do. OR doing things that they knew were against the rules of our home. I felt like a crazy person last week. I had never wanted to swear so much in my life. Last week was also a not-so-busy week compared to weeks passed. This meant boredom for them and sanity for me. It was nice to be able to catch up with some things around my house. BUT with me trying to catch up on several things and being home a lot more this meant lots of mischief to the kiddos... Like painting the toilet with some lipstick, or taking apart M's bed (multiple times a day) and folding the mattress in half to launch whatever stuffed animal across the room, or throwing toys into the fan to watch the toys launch across the room -breaking lamps, etc in the process, or just plain running around the house like crazy creatures from who knows where.

Anyway-I had been praying quite a lot last week that I would be able to help them know how to make good choices and that they would understand how important that is. Now, lately I have been getting up and running and reading my scriptures before the kids wake up. My kids like to get up at the crack of dawn so I have been having to get up between 5 and 6. And I'm still not finished when they wake up... Oh well, c'est la vie. Last Wed and Thurs were particularly hard days for me and the kids. They were especially hard to manage and I just wasn't handling them very well. Number one reason for my end of the discord was I didn't read my scriptures and study the gospel in the morning. Made a bigger difference than ever before in my life. Second reason was, I was tired. Body tired and brain tired and spiritually tired. I had gotten up exercised and by the time I was back from running, the kids were all up. So instead of turning on scriptures while I got breakfast, or something, I put it off... And by the time I knew it, the day was over and I was totally frazzled and thinking, "why did I choose to be a mom again???" And feeling like the worst mom on the planet, or that my children were the craziest, most unmanageable kids in the world. All from not reading my scriptures. I know that is the reason because I read Friday morning instead of running, I woke up late, and Friday was a million times better than the day before. Now, back to my topic of helping them make good choices. It was one of the mornings last week, probably Friday because I was spiritually prepared to hear, that I received an answer to this constant plea with Heavenly Father about how to help my children make good decisions. It started by reading 1 Nephi chapter 8, in the Book of Mormon. (I've been trying to read scriptures from a parenting point of view). In there Lehi has the vision called the Tree if Life. He is there eating the fruit of the Tree by himself and wants his family to have this delicious fruit with him so he finds and calls to them. Some of them heed his call. But when he finds them, they are looking around not knowing where to go. When he calls to them, they finally know what to do and where to go. Now, the answer to my prayer was this. I have to teach my children how to make good decisions by providing an environment where they can learn to make good decisions. An environment where they can overcome the temptations they are faced with. AND I need to show them how. I need to put down what I want to do or think I need to do and just spend time with them and teach by example. Something kinda clicked in my brain like, "duh! Of course that would be the answer." Like Lehi's family knew what they needed to do when he showed them, my children will know what to do when I show them.

1. Provide the environment where they can learn to make correct choices.

2. Show the way.

3. Reward freely.

4. Remember they are children. Learning. Just like me.