Primary Program

Today was our Primary Program. 

I let out a sigh of relief when it was over but I was also so thankful to have the opportunity to serve in the Primary and have the chance to teach these wonderful kids and to be taught by them.

Families has been the focus this year and I have given the topic even more thought over the last few weeks/months as we have put the presentation together and then I had to come up with something to say at the beginning of the program. 

Oh I had so many thoughts: 

Thoughts of Arabella's tears over not having any kids so she did not have a family when we played the game of Life. This made me think of those couples who so badly want children and never get that blessing in their lives and yet they are still a family.

Thoughts on how my family could do so many things better and yet how there are many things that we are doing well.

Thoughts on how the Lord really does give us families to help us become what he wants us to be. It is how he shows his love in that we may be blessed with perfect parents or a perfect family but face challenges in other ways or we may be blessed with a family that is not the ideal or parents that are not such.  This then allows for us to feel his love as we learn to lean on Him and His Son for strength and knowledge and understanding. 

I thought of the phrase "mama bear". I can certainly be a mama bear about my kids in certain situations. I am happy to let them learn from experiences, choices, and consequences. But, if you try to cheat my child out of something or wrongfully accuse them of something you will find a fierceness in me that exists and only emerges when protection is needed. I will protect my family. I know I  need to work harder on building our defenses because my kids are getting older and Satan is going to try attacking in new and different ways.  I will prepare and protect my family as fiercely as a mama bear by not letting things get in the way of Family Home Evening, scripture study, and family prayer. I will teach my kids to have personal prayer. I will attend the temple more often (this will be easier when Samantha decides that a bottle is a good idea again).  I will be more generous with my praise for my children when I seen them succeed, show kindness and love, serve, feel the spirit, invite the spirit into our home, and do their best. I will put the screens down or away and spend more time living in the moment and listening to their excited little (and not so little) voices. My time with them is precious and short I need to make the most of it. 

Families are Forever. I wish all of the people in the world could feel and know that to be true the way that I do. I wish they could know that we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who made t his possible through his atoning sacrifice and resurrection. I wish that every child could have a family that loves them fully and treats them with the love a child of God deserves. 

There are days that I feel so blessed to have been born and raised in the gospel by parents who taught me the truth and lived the truth each day for me to see the example of what a disciple of Christ is. Today I will dedicate myself to striving more diligently to be the mother my children need me to be and the mother my Heavenly Father expects me to be. And I will do it with my loving husband by my side, Peter. We make a good team and together we can raise these kids!