Children

The past week or so has been a difficult one for me in terms of keeping contentment and peace in our home. This is partly due to kids acting up.... but also partly due to me not handling situations in quite the way that I anticipated myself doing so before I had children.... ;) Sometimes children can be very hard to deal with and I have found that I am not at all adequate to think I know what is best for them. I have to had to pray many times and put forth lots of self control to be patient. It has not always worked, but I know that we must keep trying everyday to the best we can. And Heavenly Father knows our efforts. I know that having children is part of His plan for us. They are special spirits and they depend on us for direction, love, and setting boundaries. This is a very difficult mix of things and the recipe for the amounts of each is different for every situation. And taking a parenting class in college somehow doesn't equate.... :) Anyway, life is a constant challenge as a parent, seeing weaknesses in yourself, trying everyday to do better; experimenting with everything if something doesn't work (and then of course what works for one child never works for the other) :) But this is Heavenly Father's plan for us FOR A REASON! He knows our children better than we do. He knows what it's like to have hard children and He will give us the strength to keep trying. We can make it!! :)

Here are some good quotes I found about children:


All children behave as well as they are treated.

Kids spell love T-I-M-E.

Praise your children openly, reprehend them secretly.

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

Parents need to fill a child's bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can't poke enough holes to drain it dry.

Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.

To be in your children's memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

"It is our solemn duty, our precious privilege—even our sacred opportunity—to welcome to our homes and to our hearts the children who grace our lives. They should not be seen as burdens or stumbling blocks to our own happiness, but pathways to it! Let there be love at home. Let there be tenderness and teaching and caring for and not a shifting of responsibility onto others. God grant that we may never be too busy to do the things that matter most."