Well, I finished my lesson this week, part b of part 2 of Teaching your Children Gospel Principals. This week I got to teach on teaching children the value of honest labor and morality/chastity. Lol, I also taught the lesson on fidelity/intimacy in marriage- good thing I don't have a problem with talking about those things. A great quote from my lesson was "Those who teachest are themselves being taught" - or something to that effect. It's very, very true and one of the reasons I like my class, everyone shares idea's of what works and doesn't work in their own families so we all get to collectively learn together.
I suppose it wasn't hard for me teach this lesson, because I've been discussing it with teenagers for - forever it seems - or atleast since I've been married and first put into the Young Women's Organization. However, that was 17 yrs ago and I have to tell you - it's very scary out there these days! I thought it was bad when I was growing up and I can tell you my experiences don't even scratch the surface of what these kids face - each and every day. I think our schools have turned into rated R movies and our children have to try to live G amongst the R. Not easy. If I wasn't proud of my children before, the more I learn the more proud I am.
Anthony for example is the most stubborn child in the universe!!! Even in delivery, he was 2 days late and than contractions stopped when I was fully dilated! Psh, child. When he was 2 my friends and I would chat about how normal discipline wasn't working and we had no clue how to control these stubborn monsters! But we also realized that it was a quality that was going to be needed in the last days. Once they KNOW something and have it in their head - HA, good luck to the person who tries to argue with them. =] He now uses that wonderful stubbornness that I used to dread, to help protect him from everything the world is throwing at him and peer pressure says he must do. No, he is not perfect but he stands tall and finally realized what it means to walk uprightly - now it's mom & dad's turn to help him continue walking that way.
That's what our lesson was about - we cannot be our parents and start puberty conversations at puberty - your children already know by that age. As with anything else, we need to be forthright, honest, and open and include these discussions in family home evenings and more intimate settings if necessary. The Gospel should be the foundation of our homes, we need to teach our children the Lord's values and ideals not let the world teach them incorrect principals for us. And we need to do it when they are young and not when it's too late.
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