By Request

And, now, with all the time I have left for blogging today, I will honor my Mom's request. She tells me that when a mother comes into the church, it opens a whole new world of parenting with new methods and ideas not considered before. How do you parent the LDS way?
When I hear this, I cringe and laugh and cry inside myself all at once. I cry - "I have no idea!" and "I know, I know, pick me!!!" all at the same time. Let me explain.
Brian and I live where there are few young families and few families with kids at all in our ward. I am pretty sure there is no "LDS way" to parent. I'm pretty sure we parent differently from many other great families out there, but we just don't have many models to follow.
The good news is that there is a manual and Expert Advice on parenting. The scriptures and personal revelation. The bad news is that it takes patience. Years. Lots of mistakes. And you want to know the worst thing I've discovered - it requires me as an individual to stretch, grow and change to become a better disciple of Christ, and then I can see clearly enough to parent the spirits he sent to me. Its not the kids that need fixing so much as myself. If the kids are disobedient, rowdy, fighting etc. - you know who needs to be more Christlike? Me.
That being said, I've found the Proclamation on the Family extremely helpful as well as this site from BYU that helps me get perspective on parenthood. I've read Steven Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Successful Families" and all the Richard and Linda Eyre I can get my hands on (I really like that stuff). I just devour anything in the Ensign about parenting. I do a lot of footwork, and praying - then I wait (patiently and impatiently) for answers to my needs. God has been good. He has taken care of my family. I couldn't and wouldn't be able to do it without His help. God bless each of you in your individual undertakings! I will try to include more of the way our family actually works in my posts in the future if you want to see what it looks like... But, your way will be best for your family, so don't pay too much attention!