what matters most

I think for this last blog entry I want to talk about family. If anything, the biggest thing I have learned in my life is that family is the most important thing we have. I'm positive that is why God created families for us to come down to and to learn and love each other. We can not progress in this life without the help of our family. It is so important to me that I raise my family in a loving home where my kids know I love them. I didn't grow up with this myself. Growing up my parents were separated quite often, always coming back together in the end. After 16 years of marriage with on again/ off again, they decided to get a divorce. This was a hard ting for my sister and me to experience, but something that taught me the value and importance of having a strong, loving, happy family. Sometimes I am scared of the unknown future of my husband and mine's relationship, but then i always find comfort that if we really love each other and turn to the lord He will help us overcome anything. Our families are like a muscle: if we work that muscle and do our best to strengthen it with healthy activities, then that muscle will be strong in the end.
I think we all just need to step back from our busy lives to see our family as being the most precious thing and then invest our time treating it as such. It will be more than worth it in the end.

Parenting

Parenting is something we will all be affected by in some way or another: we will wither become parents ourselves or have been parented in the past. Parenting is not just a matter of getting our children to comply to us and our needs/wants as adults, but is rather a process for us to act on the needs of children. The needs of children can be placed into 5 categories:

1. The need for contact

2. The need of belonging

3. The need for protection

4. the need to withdraw

5. the need for challenge

As we parent, these are the areas we need to be looking at when a child acts out or seems to be "misbehaving". We have the responsibility to teach our children right verses wrong and help build their character, we are not parents to just police their good and bad behavior. We do not teach kids to behave, rather we teach them how to build character. Character can be built as we address  the apparent needs of the child. As we address those needs we won't need to chase around their behavior because as their needs are met they will naturally be happier and more willing to abide by rules of the house. 

We as parents have a sacred responsibility to parent those spirits in which our Father in heaven trusts to teach and guide His children to learn truth and build character.