Help Your Children Do Hard Things

Book of Mormon Marriage And Family Study

We all want children who contribute to society and the world and who can make righteous things happen by their faith. We want children who will make us proud. This requires they are not afraid to do hard things.

How Can We Help Our Children Do Hard Things

Help them repent!

The consequences of sin are real and serious. There is a reason why the Lord says He has the least degree of allowance for sin. That is not just because sin kills us spiritually, but it also makes us common, weak and vulnerable. As a result, doing hard things is extremely difficult because we are left to our own strength and cut off from the Lord’s grace and help. Furthermore, many people in sin don’t feel worthy to seek after Him when that is the most important thing they should be doing.

They stop praying!

This fear of seeking after God in sin is not from Him but from Satan. The most important thing you can do in sin is to seek after Christ even more.

Sin makes you afraid!

President Monson said, “Remember that faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.”

Bolster your children’s power to do hard things by helping them overcome doubt and fear.

I have frequently thought about this idea of conquering doubt and fear and my pondering always returns to knowing Christ and living close to the spirit. Knowing Christ annihilates doubt and fear because you are yoked to Him.

If you are yoked to Christ you cannot have fear because His power is your power, and His strength is your strength. Being yoked is like being joined at the hip. This means you have direct access to His Atonement and His grace, which is His enabling power. This grace endows you with Godly strength to do hard things, and things that you can’t do on your own power.

The Apostles teach that covenants and ordinances is key to accessing this strength.

Parents and leaders of youth should not shield them from the world or discourage them from doing hard things. Instead, the best way to prepare them is help them to internalize the atonement to the level that nothing can overthrow or defeat them. That will not be easy because the Atonement is unfathomable and incomprehensible to completely understand. However we must try!

If you live in the Salt Lake City valley, I invite you to join us at church on Sunday's at 1 p.m. We are a mid-singles ward; however, if you have a family please don't let that stop you. Please, join us for for our first meeting which is Sacrament meeting, and make sure you ask someone to introduce you to our ward mission leader. Our address is 7155 South 540 East, Midvale Utah, 84047.