Becoming as Little Children

What do you think of when you see this picture of 11 little kids?

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."  - Matthew 18:3

Now what are you thinking?

Children can bring feelings of joy and anxiety - excitement and exhaustion.  

Children can bring feelings of love and feelings of frustration.

Many people in the world today see kids as burdens.

Many people don't understand why they do what they do.

 I know a lot of people that complain that kids are just bratty, annoying, mean and whiny. They can often be careless, difficult and hard to please.  On the other hand, I know people that see how sweet and innocent children are and absolutely love life with little children, if fact they couldn't imagine life without them.  Depending on your experiences in life you might feel like I did that kids are a mixture of both!

 So, why would the Lord want us to become like children....and what does that exactly entail?  When we read the Book of Mormon we can gain further insight into the attributes of children that we are to emulate.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been since the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticing of the Holy Spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." -King Benjamin, Mosiah 3:19

Why do some kids act like this ...

And some kids act like this.....

"Our Heavenly Father knows children are a key to helping us become like Him.  There is so much we can learn from children."  

- Jean A. Stevens, April 2011

This week as I studied my scriptures I found some new treasures I would like to point out.  First of all, in Matthew 18:3, it says, "Except ye be converted and become as a little child."  We must be converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and become as a child.  The cross reference found in the footnotes was 1 Corinthians 14:20 Which says, "Brethren, be not children in understanding; howbiet in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men."  This says to me that we need to be understanding and mature but adopt that great attribute that children possess which is to not have malice.  Jean A. Steven, First Counselor in the General Primary Presidency said, 

"These precious children of God come to us with believing hearts.  They are full of faith and receptive to feelings of the Spirit,  They exemplify humility, obedience, and love.  They are often the first to love and the first to forgive." 

             



"And moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread through every nation, kindred, tongue and people.  And behold, when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except it be little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent."  Mosiah 3:20-21

This may surprise you - especially if you know a little terror or two!  But scriptures tell us that children are innocent and cannot be tempted of the devil until the age of accountability. So, then why are there mini little minions running around this world?  I would submit that it is a result of the example set around them.  They do not have to be subjected to satan to be naughty.  They see us being naughty and copy what they see - whether it be a parent, sibling, friend, TV show, school mates, etc.  Influence is indeed strong.  Children watch, listen and copy.  

 The following is snippets from a talk back in 1994 by MERLIN R. LYBBERT in a talk entitled "The Special Status of Children."

In a day when one of “the greatest problem[s] in our society is the abandonment of children through the abandonment of parental leadership” (Richard Lloyd Anderson, Understanding Paul, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1983, p. 354), the First Presidency has asked that “we reemphasize the need for all adult members to focus on our children in an ongoing effort to help them learn to follow the teachings of the Savior.” Also they have asked each of us to “rededicate ourselves to nourish and bless them temporally and spiritually” (First Presidency Letter, 1 Aug. 1993; see Ensign, Jan. 1994, p. 80).

Parents in Zion have the special responsibility of teaching and training their children in righteousness. They are to be taught “to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old.” Otherwise, the Lord declared, “the sin be upon the heads of the parents” (D&C 68:25). This teaching is to be done before a child reaches the age of accountability, and while innocent and sin-free. This is protected time for parents to teach the principles and ordinances of salvation to their children without interference from Satan. It is a time to dress them in armor in preparation for the battle against sin. When this preparation time is neglected, they are left vulnerable to the enemy. To permit a child to enter into that period of his life when he will be buffeted and tempted by the evil one, without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and an understanding of the basic principles of the gospel, is to set him adrift in a world of wickedness. During these formative, innocent years, a child may learn wrong behavior; but such is not the result of Satan’s temptations, but comes from the wrong teachings and the bad example of others. In this context, the Savior’s harsh judgment of adults who offend children is better understood, wherein he said, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones” (Luke 17:2).

We offend a child by any teaching or example which leads a little one to violate a moral law; causes him to stumble, or go astray; excites him to anger; creates resentment; or perhaps even leads him to become displeasing and disagreeable. Certainly, in the context of the Savior’s harsh indictment concerning anyone who “offends” a child, one guilty of such conduct is in serious jeopardy.

I have a little quote that hangs in my house that says, "When we try to teach our children about life, they teach us what life is really all about."

I know that we must become childlike not childish.  I know that Jesus Christ loved little children.  I have seen first hand how quick they are to forgive, how quick they are to trust, love, serve and have faith.  I have seen children that resemble angels upon the earth.  I have had children warm my heart, fill my eyes with tears and pray words I could never have expressed better.  I am so thankful for my Savior who reminds us to be as little children - submissive, humble, patience and kind.  

Thank you to Lds.org Media Library for the use of these pictures!!

Kimball's Talk in Primary

Just to give a little background first, we just moved to Oklahoma.  I was just called to be a Primary teacher.  My son Kimball is in Junior Primary and is 8 years old.  He was asked last week to give a talk.  But, of course I forgot all about it.  We show up today to Primary.  He is sitting in his class and I am in my class row.  He happens to be the class just older than the one I teach and so he is sitting behind me.  They announce that he will be giving the talk today.  I turned around very quickly and said, "Kimball, oh no! We forgot..."  He just as quickly said, "I didn't forget.  I have it memorized."  I thought, "huh... and then sure enough he went to the front of the room, stood at the podium and began a talk.  "Today I am suppose to talk about repentance.  Repentance is when you makes mistakes and you are sorry.  Like if you do something you didn't mean to, if you make a mistake or if you do something on purpose but didn't know it was going to make something bad happen, you will need to repent.  The way you repent is to say a prayer.  You start out, ... well it is kind of like a prayer, except you say, 'Heavenly Father, I made a mistake and then ask for forgiveness.' then you end your prayer.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."  WOW -- I was shocked!! I then thought -- that was interesting.  The other adults in the room looked at me in awe and we all kind of smiled at each other.  Then, I turned to his Primary teacher and said, "Did you help him write that?"  She said, No -- he already was ready with something he memorized.   I just laughed!! What in the world -- he prepared a talk by himself and then memorized it - all without me knowing!! It truly was so sweet and so sincere and just the best!!  After church we came home and I told all the family about what he did.  I had him repeat the talk to us.  I said, "Kimball, I can't believe you did that on your own.  When did you write that and memorize it."  He said, "I woke up this morning and before I started reading Harry Potter I did it.  I wanted to get it done!"  Haha ---- again I was just cracking up! What a boy!! It is crazy what kids can do on their own at such young ages! I sure am proud of him.  It made it such a great talk because you could tell it came straight from his heart.  He stood at the front of that room and was very shy looking and he would pause in between thoughts or words and even though it was very short it just was profound to hear a boy tell what he thought repentance was.  I don't know -- I don't mean to boast and brag, I just was really touched and wanted to share this! 

I am sorry I haven't written here for so long.  I want to write more now that we have moved.  I have had many wonderful experiences and they seem to be coming daily.  I want to be sure and keep a record.  So, along with bringing up gospel topics, I also want to share experiences, thoughts and feelings regarding the spiritual things happening in my life.  Maybe they can help strengthen others. 

Youth Theme and The Articles of Faith

 Right now, I am serving in the Young Women's Program (12 - 18 year old girls) as the Beehive Leader (Beehive = just a name that was attached to the group of girls ages 12 - 13).  So, I am one of their teachers and I attend the Wednesday night activities every week.  So, normally we will meet and have a lesson just us girls for the last hour of church, however, today we all met together with the Young Men to go over the new Theme for the Year for the youth worldwide!  Every year, the Prophet, his counselors and the General Young Men and Young Women's presidency meet and pray and plan a theme for the up coming year!  This year's theme for the youth to focus on is the 13 Article of Faith.  It states,

“We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”


What a great theme! So, today when we met with the youth - we reviewed what all these words meant and they taught us the background - such as what are the Articles of Faith, who wrote them and how did it all come about and why do we ask our Primary age kids to memorize them and so forth.  So, this is my topic today -- The Articles of Faith!

So, where did we get the Articles of Faith?  Well, to quote Elder L. Tom Perry, "The Prophet (Jospeh Smith) was often asked to explain the teachings and practices of Mormonism. “John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, asked Joseph Smith to provide him with a sketch of ‘the rise, progress, persecution, and faith of the Latter-Day Saints.’” Mr. Wentworth, originally from New Hampshire, desired this information to help a friend compile a history of his native state. “Joseph complied with this request and sent Wentworth a multi-page document containing an account of many of the early events in the history of the Restoration, including the First Vision and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. The document also contained thirteen statements outlining Latter-day Saint beliefs, which have come to be known as the Articles of Faith.”

There are 13 Articles of Faith.  The following link will instruct you on what each Article talks about.  http://lds.org/general-conference/1998/04/the-articles-of-faith?lang=eng

And this link is the actual Articles of Faith as found printed in our scriptures back by the Pearl of Great Price.  http://lds.org/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1?lang=eng

I don't want to go into too much detail right now about each Article -- but I did want to go over what I learned today in church about the 13th Article.  It is great because basically the first 12 teach doctrine that we believe in.  Then, the 13th says that we also believe that based on the doctrine we will now behave in such a way as not to be a hypocrit with what we believe.  Because we believe all these things we will now act as disciples of God and be honest and true.  We will endure and seek goodness.  Now, today I did something I have never done before, I looked up what it means to "follow the admoniton of Paul."  The 13th Article says "indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul..."  What was Paul's admonition and what is an admonition.  Admonition means a mild rebuke - instruction, reminder.  So, what was Paul's rebuke?  Paul taught many many things! Here is one I found in the Bible that I felt was exactly as the 13th Article points out: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philip. 4:8.)  Of course the Bible is full of other admonitions from Paul. It is fun to read his words! He truly was a great teacher and example!  (To see more teachings of Paul follow this link: http://lds.org/general-conference/1976/10/teachings-of-the-apostle-paul?lang=eng)

It is a lot to think about!  That is quite of list of things we claim to be and to become!  I also loved that we talked about what the word being means.  It doesn't just mean we think about it -- we means that we become it - we live it and do it.  It becomes who we are!! This gospel is defininately a gospel of doing!  I know that it can be overwhelming as we try to live all of God's commandments.  I have found that as we live each day - learning, praying and reading the scriptures to try to understand, then all the rest can fall naturally.  Line upon line.  It takes time.  It takes patience and forgiveness with ourselves and others.  But I am thankful for a church that encourages these youth to live a life of honesty and goodness -- to endure, to seek and live for goodness.  I am thankful for a Prophet to guide us and to know exactly what our youth need to know and focus on this year! Today we had 2 of our youth speak in front of the group - their thoughts on the theme and what it meant to them and it was awesome to hear their words, feel their spirit and testimony to know that they get it!! Some times it takes us so long to figure out life and happiness and it is so great to see such strong kids who get it and want to be happy and want to be good and feel good.  I now hope I can teach my kids.  I hope I can become better at living the gospel and remembering who I want to become! 

I hope this helps!! Let me know if you have questions!!

Food Storage

Recently I was at the grocery store and ran into a friend of mine. I noticed she was very decided on the things she was buying and seemed to have a specific plan in mind. I inquired and she said yes -- she was on a tight budget, trying new methods and had a menu plan. So, when I told her I wanted her ideas and tips she said I will in exchange for your tips and information on home and food storage. She is not a member of our church and did not know exactly how to go about it, but wanted it in her life. I have always done food storage but not well. Several years ago we felt that we had the money and within 3 months we had a whole year supply of food and storage items like first aid, medicines, batteries, etc. Our 72 hour kits were up to par and I felt great! However it is now 2011 and I haven't done much with it! No rotating, no replacing - just using it up and going on with life week to week as I go to the grocery store. I usually have to go to the store twice a week because I forget something or run out of something. So, even though I have been taught -- I feel like now is the time to revamp, rethink and redo!! The church has come out with better suggestions and ideas of how to go about this and I wanted to take a minute to review a few ideas. 1. We can start small. Start little by little. Start with a goal of having a 3 month supply of Food for your family. Then add to it. And the 2. idea is that we should store the foods we eat and eat the foods we store. Rotation and usage is key! It will do us little good if we store for years food that is expired or food our family won't eat.

As I have gone about planning I do believe we can follow the suggestions as outlined on provident living. org As I did searches for it online I found another helpful resources - with many links that link you to other articles. It is at lds.about.com and I searched food and home storage helps. I found a food calculator and other helpful lists and suggestions. Anyway, today I have come away with the impression that I still want to store grains, beans, and other food items that store for many (10+) years. Then once I have a good stock of those items I think I am going to focus on our everyday eating habits and work around that. I went through my pantry and wrote down foods that we like that I can store for at least a year. Crackers, salad dressing and such don't last as long as canned food and other items. But now knowing about how long food lasts on my shelf and seeing what foods my kids really like I can store food based on this. I also have thought about how we will be able to cook if we were in a situation where we didn't have electricity for a while. I have purchased chaffing dishes (warming pans with the use of canned fuel) and bought candles, little canned fuel, a camping stove and made sure I have plenty of water stored as well. Anyway, it is a lot to think about. This year I am starting babysteps again at obtaining a years supply of food and storage items and I am determined to rotate it and keep it all fresh and tasty!! I am willing to try new foods, cook hard beans instead of always grabbing a can and I also am willing to try the different ways of eating wheat -- wheat berries, cracked wheat, puffed wheat, etc. I also have a wheat grinder and hope to make more homemade bread this year with my whole wheat!! If you want more ideas or help let me know!! If you have any ideas or suggestions please respond and comment!!

Ways We Can Gain a Testimony or Strengthen it!

LDS.org - Sunday School Chapter Detail - I Can Know for Myself



This is a great article about gaining our own testimony! It can answer a lot of questions or be a wonderful Family Home Evening Lesson for Monday night!

"A testimony in our day consists of three things: It consists of the knowledge that Jesus is the Lord, that he is the son of the Living God who was crucified for the sins of the world; it consists of the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God called to restore the gospel truths and be the revealer of the knowledge of Christ for our day; and it consists of knowing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, the one place where salvation is found, the orginization which administers the gospel and therefore administers salvation to the sons of men." ("Gaining a Testimony of Jesus Christ", Ensign Dec. 1980, 15)

LDS.org - Liahona Article - A Great Work of God

LDS.org - Liahona Article - A Great Work of God

Strenghtening New Members

The original reason I was making this blog was to share the gospel and participate in the world wide web --- Using it as another way to proclaim the gospel and share my beliefs with anyone who would listen. However, over the past few months a new reason has emerged and I think it could be a really big blessing in my life and the lives of new members throughout the world -- if not just the few friends I have here in my home ward. Becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is like becoming a whole new person, in a foreign land and speaking a foreign language. Not only can the doctrine be different than what they were used to, but everyday living has changed. The gospel of Jesus Christ is daily being a disciple (not just a Sunday activity for a few hours). The words and phrases we use can be confusing. The abbreviations, traditions and opinions of church members can be new to us. My new plan is that each Sunday I will sit and write about a topic. Then if friends have questions I will try to answer those questions to the best of my ability. Each week, the little message I write about should help you understand or more fully know the culture and typical traditions of our religion. THIS WILL DEFINITELY be a opinion based blog. It is coming from me -- a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - as I have been taught and raised. I will bring in quotes and scriptures but overall, this is just my answers based on my knowledge. I think it will be beneficial since I have been raised Mormon and because I have been taught from my parents and great leaders throughout my 31 years of living. I love the gospel. I have a strong testimony of the truthfulness of it and it is my desire to make your transition into the church more comfortable and easier.

To begin -- I know that we must first always strengthen the spiritual testimony we have. The Holy Ghost provided us with the feeling and prompting to know that this is truly the Church of Jesus Christ. This is His gospel on the Earth in the Last Days. Our testimony must be a testimony of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We can enjoy the friendships and fellowshipping of the members -- but our testimony or our belief is in the gospel. People are imperfect. The church members have flaws and make mistakes or sin. Maybe the people are not as friendly or do not reach out the way you know Jesus Christ loves and reaches out to you. Do not base your testimony on the Bishop or the missionaries or people you have met that are really cool! Our testimony or belief should be built upon the foundation that Jesus Christ lives. He is our Savior. He lived and died for us. We are God's children. He loves us and we love Him. We have a great work to do! We know the Bible and Book of Mormon are His words and we should read and study them and strive to become like our Savior and be disciples. Then, in church we may meet people who are great example to us. We may be great examples to someone else we are in connection with. The Lord will use us to accomplish his work and answer prayers. We can be instruments for the Lord. We can love our leaders and those we work with in the church! We should be kind and loving and thoughtful. We should as true Christians bare one another's burdens and love one another! This is a great church. There are many great people. But the truth is in the gospel itself . The words of prophets and apostles. The teachings of the Holy Scriptures. We can know the truth of all things through the Holy Spirit. We are blessed to have Him (the Holy Ghost) as our companion. We are blessed to have prayer and know where to turn for help and strength. We are blessed to have the words of a living prophet, even Thomas S. Monson. I am thankful for the gospel. I know Jesus lives and loves each of us and hopes we will turn to Him and follow Him.


read the post below -- this is the Message from Pres. Uchtdorf this month! It goes so nicely with what I just wrote about!! I thought it was great!