Image via Persimmon and Pink Hi Everyone, I'm so sorry it's been a while since this was updated! I hope that last month's theme of self esteem and the talks and perspectives that were shared have been useful to you as we strive to find safety in personal righteousness this year. We started out with self esteem because we felt that if you can feel good about yourself and understand your worth, you can not only conquer anything in life, but you are able to actually be righteous (and therefore find safety there) because you know who you are.
I also hope you were able to take the opportunity to be creative or to assist someone else in a compassionate way and that your experiences added to your sense of worth. Thank you to everyone who donated things for the Enrichment auction and those who supported the event - it was a lot of fun and highlighted the amazing talents we have in this ward!
We're into a new month - February - traditionally a month of love!! So I thought what better way to celebrate this month than to focus on our FAMILIES, those who we should love the most (although sometimes they feature those who are hardest to love too!). It is significant to me that both the Old Testament, New Testament and Book of Mormon commence with stories and situations involving families. And, we should add, not perfect families either. Families that we can all relate to: parents leading their families through difficult and challenging times; husbands and wives who don't always agree with each other; children who are not always obedient; and siblings who do not always get along.
And yet in these stories we are also able to see the Proclamation on the Family played out for real in all it's glory:
"The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."
How blessed we are to have the scriptures to show us how to implement these principles in such a real way.
So for the goal this month, we have the following challenge:
Take a look at "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and identify a principle that you and your family could work on this month. It could be increasing faith through daily family prayer, commiting to regular Family Home Evenings, doing better at forgiving family members when they make mistakes or frustrate us or anything else that will bring you closer to your family and increase your sense of safety as you implement righteous principles in your home.
Please leave a comment of any ideas you have to successfully implement these principles so that we can learn from each other! And if you have anything you would like us to highlight this month, also leave a comment. I hope to showcase some ideas for Family Home Evenings with all ages, improving prayer and scripture study as families and other little helps. I'm hoping that the things we highlight can remind us that "what matters most is what lasts the longest and our families are for eternity" (M Russell Ballard - this talk also has some great ideas for improving family relations)
