We hope everyone had a great Sunday attending church wherever you ended up. I missed being able to be together! Our family went to the Pottstown ward and saw quite of few of our ward members there too. In Relief Society we had a great lesson from Elder Eyring's talk, "Help Them on Their Way Home" from our last General Conference. I didn't remember this talk as well, so I just came home and re-read it again. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this amazing talk:
Brothers and sisters, our Heavenly Father wants and needs our help to bring His spirit children home to Him again. I speak today of young people already within His true Church and so are started on the strait and narrow way to return to their heavenly home. He wants them to gain early the spiritual strength to stay on the path. And He needs our help to get them back to the path quickly should they begin to wander.
Many bishops in the Church are inspired to call the strongest people in the ward to serve individual children in the Primary. They realize that if the children are strengthened with faith and testimony, they will be less likely to need rescue as teenagers. They realize that a strong spiritual foundation can make the difference for a lifetime.
We all can help. Grandmothers, grandfathers, and every member who knows a child can help. It doesn’t take a formal calling in Primary. Nor is it limited by age.
The best counsel for us to give young people is that they can arrive back to Heavenly Father only as they are guided and corrected by the Spirit of God. So if we are wise, we will encourage, praise, and exemplify everything which invites the companionship of the Holy Ghost. When they share with us what they are doing and feeling, we must ourselves have qualified for the Spirit. Then they will feel in our praise and our smiles the approval of God. And should we feel the need to give corrective counsel, they will feel our love and the love of God in it, not rebuke and rejection, which can permit Satan to lead them further away.
The example they most need from us is to do what they must do. We need to pray for the gifts of the Spirit. We need to ponder in the scriptures and in the words of living prophets. We need to make plans which are not only wishes but covenants. And then we need to keep our promises to the Lord. And we need to lift others by sharing with them the blessings of the Atonement which have come in our lives.
I think some of my favorite parts of this talk were the emphasis that is put that we each can play a vital role in helping children and youth to stay on the straight and narrow path. It really involves everyone, not just parents, to help children understand what their divine role in the world is during these turbulent times. We can each reach out and love the children and youth in our ward and give them the support and love they need to return to our Heavenly Father someday.
What was the topic of the lesson you heard? Feel free to post insights from whatever ward you went to in the comments section. We'd love to hear from you!
Devon, I remember receiving a blessing in which I was told that after all I could do, as a mother, the Lord would make up the difference through the people He calls to serve my children--I've loved every single primary teacher and nursery leader they've been given, up to now. I've often heard the sweetest lessons come from my children's lips, teaching me, knowing it came from Sister or Brother "???", and not me!
ReplyDelete