Spiritually safe

September 27, 2011
I've been thinking a lot about my family lately... keeping them safe from this wicked world.

Sometimes I sit and wonder why we even had kids. Especially when everything around them seems to want to tear them down, break them down, and tempt them. It feels like a battle I have no chance of winning. It's hard to describe how overwhelmed I feel at the thought of trying to teach my kids not only the stuff they'll need to succeed in school and "the world" but how to keep them spiritually safe. Both came with enough spunk, personality, and stubbornness that I'm just praying I can keep them on the straight and narrow path or we are in big, big trouble.

This was on my mind a lot tonight, especially after quickly reading the Visiting Teaching message in the Ensign before going to see my V.T. ladies. One part really stuck out:

"What can we do to better prepare our children spiritually for their eternal roles?" asked Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. "Perhaps the most inclusive answer is: Teach them how to live the principles of the gospel." This teaching comes through daily prayer, scripture study, and family mealtimes as well as weekly family home evening and Church attendance. Elder Ballard explains: “We prepare each day, right now, for eternal life. If we are not preparing for eternal life, we are preparing for something less, perhaps something far less.”

My exact first thoughts were, "Yeah right. There's no way that these five things will keep my kids spiritually ready for all the evil out there." But then something else came into my head, ".... by small and simple things are great things brought to pass...."

Maybe, just maybe if we can get the daily prayer down (thankfully, we've got the other ones figured out so far) these two little pipsqueaks will be alright.