General Authorities have the privilege of meeting and getting acquainted with members of the Church all over the world who have consistently lived good lives and raised their families in the fluence of the gospel.
These Saints have enjoyed the great blessings and comfort that can come from looking back as parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents over long and successful parenting efforts. Surely that is something each of us would like.
Nevertheless, there are many in the Church and in the world who are living with the feelings of guilt and unworthiness because some of their sons and daughters have wandered or strayed from the fold. My remarks here are directed primarily to those mothers and fathers.
Conscientious parents try their best, yet nearly all have made mistakes. One does not launch into such a project as parenthood without soon realizing that there will be many errors along the way. Surely our Heavenly Father knows, when He entrusts His spirit children to the care of young and inezperienced parents, that there will be mistakes and errors in judgement.
For every set of parents there are many 'first time' experiennces that help to build wisdom and understanding, but each such experience results from the plowing of new ground, with the possibility that errors might be made. With the arrival of the first child, the parents must make decisions about how to teach and train, how to correct and discipline. Soon there is the first dat at school and the first bicycle. Then follows the first date of the first teenager, the first problem with school grades, and possibly, the first request to stay out late or the first request to buy a car.
Friday, March 5, 2010
