"No other success can compensate for failure in the home"- David O. McKay
I had a conversation with one of my friends this week and it has made me do a lot of thinking. She asked what "Success in the Home" means. The long term answer to this is relatively easy for me. I want my family to be happy and grow up to be responsible adults who are active in the church and married in the temple.
But how do you set short term goals that relate to that? My friend wanted help setting goals to accomplish that she could check off at the end of the day or week. Any ideas? Do you do self evaluations and determine what you're doing good and what you need to improve? What things do you look for?
(I asked a lot of questions on purpose, please leave comments and let me know what you think.)
The Last Legion 2007 Svenskt Tal Online
8 years ago
2 comments:
Carrie that is an interesting question, I think the short term goals are what Tom would call classic sunday school answers, thay are along the lines of: Did my kids/family go to church this week? do we pray together as a family for meals and getup and bedtime. do we read scriptures as a family and do our kids see us reading them on our own? Are we considerate of others?
Something that I think is important is for our children to see us doing service, and to include them in it.
No, I don't do all of these all of the time, but I keep trying.
Our stake pres has given each member of ur stake a business card with a picture of Christ on it. it is titled "The call to Spiritual Nourishment"
on side one it says: Strengthen you family in Christ by living The Call to Spiritual Nourishment and living worthy to receive temle blessings.
Invite others to come unto Christ by doing good to all men and sharing the gospel daily.
Provide Read and ponder the scriptures daily.
Offer hearfelt vocal prayers on your knees every day.
come unto Christ as you covenant during the sacrament and serve in the temple.
Love one another as Jesus loves you.
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I think as we do these things alone and as a family we are developing faith and testimonys and our families are on their way to meeting our long term goals.
Lillie
I fear trying to measure success by where my children are in 20 years, because I believe that their choices are truly out of my control. I know which choices I want them to make, and I'm trying to prepare them now to make those choices, but I also want them to know every single day that I will love them regardless of which church (if any) they choose to attend as adults, or what moral decisions they make.
That said, I would feel like a failure if I did not prepare them to make conscious decisions about church and moral values. Reading the scriptures, praying, learning gratitude, learning to work hard, learning that God Is There For You No Matter What, etc. are vital things to teach. I still don't have much in the way of how to measure these things though.
Instead of attempting to, I am focusing on spending quality time with my children each day. I read with them, play video games with them, or do another activity that they choose. I know that most parents don't get this opportunity anywhere near this frequently; either they work away from home, or they have other children or smaller children so that they cannot invest a couple of hours a day in giving attention to an individual child. Thus, I have to conclude that my children would probably be just fine if I didn't spend my time this way. I want to, though, and I don't know if any other summer of my life will be this way. I am having so much fun! I've decided that I'm just grateful for the chance to spend my time this way - I now see it as sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity. I've decided to call each day a success, even if I've gotten nothing else done, if I've spent time playing with my kids.
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