Sunday, October 7, 2007

Today

Today, I realized that I don't have as good a memory of my life as I thought. I was listening to President Eyring and he talked about the experiences in his life where he was protected by God. I realized that while I can remember that the Council of Trent occurred in the year 1945, and that the spanish armada was defeated by the English in the English Channel during a storm, I can't remember all the experiences of my life that are important.

In particular, President Eyring spoke of an experience when as a teacher, he felt inadequate to perform his duties in the priesthood. I thought of myself, and at that age, I did not feel the same sense of responsibility. I did not feel the same sense of weight when I thought of my religion. And so, I did not pray as fervently as I should have. When I was assigned to teach a lesson for the first time(I was a deacon at the time), I did feel very intimidated. I had no sense of what I should do. But because I did not yet have a vision, the testimony, or the self-awareness necessary, I did not pray, but turned to my parents. I will teach my children to pray, not by withholding help when asked, but by beginning that help with prayer. I will not ask, "Have you prayed about it?," but instead will simply ask them to pray with me quickly. I will acknowledge that not every problem will be appropriate for a prayer("Daddy, can you help me tie my shoe?"), but that sometimes both I and they will need help to teach and learn the lessons of life("Daddy, can you teach me to tie my shoe?").

No comments: