Raising Stronger Saints

Our Family in front of the
Draper Temple.

Self taken photo of myself and Brent.
He "loves" it when people take pictures like this.
Can you just see the excitement in his eyes?

This past Sunday I gave my lesson on Elder Hales talk titled Christian Courage: The price of Discipleship. I went over and over and over this lesson. I wasn't very excited about the topic since I've lived in Utah all my life and never really had my faith or beliefs questioned or tested. But I realized as I prayed and read and re-read the talk that it is so important for us to understand what it means to be a Disciple of Christ. And more importantly, how we as parents can raise our children to be stronger saints.
When I was going through High School I didn't have a cell phone on which I could text, or an ipod, or an MP3 player or an MP4 player. I didn't even know what the World Wide Web was until I was married to Brent. Our children are growing up in a tougher age. They are required to be stronger. Their armor must be thicker then mine was.
So I posed the question, "What can we as parents do to help our children be stronger saints?" We had a really good discussion in Relief Society. Iris suggested utilizing the Friend more. There is a TON of useful information in that magazine. Other things that I thought of were to hold consistent FHE. My sister mentioned to me yesterday that you might not always have a spiritual experience during every FHE, but getting in the routine and habit will allow for those opportunites, and to help your children recognize the spirit. Another thing that popped out in my head and seemed very important, was to have an open dialgue about the gospel. Talk about it on a daily basis with your children. So if they find themselves in a specific situation where someone is asking them a question they wont freeze up because they've talked about it before and often.

This past Saturday Brent and I had the opportunity to take the kids to the Draper Temple open house. We went with the Huhtala's and for the most part had a wonderful time. I wanted my children to understand that the Temple should be at the top of their Goals. It was so great to walk through and show them the granduer and beauty of the House of the Lord. Temples and Eternal Families is what this earlthy life is all about.