Make Your Home a MTC (Missionary Training Center)

Here's a Family Home Evening Idea for you.  It's based on the message we discussed in our last Relief Society week night meeting.  The presenter asked us what missionaries do and then reviewed with us some of their daily activities and how we might help our children/ grandchildren practice doing what they will do on their missions.

1 STUDY - D&C 11:21 and PMG (Preach My Gospel) p. 17 - study the scriptures and this amazing book, as well as other resources from the Church.

2.  TEACH - PMG p. 29 (last paragraph)  Give children opportunities to teach in FHE, family scripture study, Sunday School and YM/YW classes, home teaching, missionary splits.  What other opportunities can you think of?

3.  TESTIFY - PMG p. 198  Teach your children what a testimony of and how to simply state what they know to their friends without necessarily sounding "preachy."

4.  OYM - OPEN YOUR MOUTH  D&C 33:8-10  & D& 11:21  Accept the challenge to have at least one conversation per week about the gospel with someone not of our faith.    He shared this story:

There was a man who was famous for his ability to give a sermon on any topic at any time.  A church found out about this talent and inved him to come and preach.  They wanted to test him on his ability to do this and so they told him that he would walk to the podium and there would be a white piece of paper with his topic written on it.  He was to read it and then give a half hour sermon on that topic.

The man went to the podium and when he looked at the white piece of paer, he found that it was completely blank.  He smiled and looked over at the organizers, who had sheepish grins on their faces.  he then turned toward the congregation and delivered an hour-long sermon on purity and being white and clean.

Our presenter then asked us if we could do that and how would we do so.  Then he divided us into groups of 2 and gave each group a bowl with several slips of paer in it.  We were to choose one of the pieces of paper and speak for 2 minutes on that topic.  He reminded us to bear our testimony and to teach what we know and feel.  He invited us to br totally awesome by using a scripture or two.  Here are the topics:

Baptism    
Commandments    
Prophets    
Life after death    
Priesthood    
Word of Wisdom    
Atonement    
Prayer

5.  WORK - Give children responsibilities and encourage them to get a summer job when they are in high school that involves interacting with people.  He referred to Elder L. Tom Perry's talk "Raising the Bar" found in the Nov 2007 Ensign magazine.

6.  EXERCISE - PMG p. viii  All missionaries are required to exercise 30 minutes/day.

7.  SERVE & LOVE - PMG p. 148 (middle paragraph)  Missionaries are required to give 4 hours/week serving.

8.  GET REJECTED - Do not protect children/ youth from the consequences of life that teach them how to deal with rejection and discouragement.  Teach them how you deal with disappaointment and trials.  Talk about it and help them develop skills that build their resilience.  (There's a great article in this month's Ensign.)

9.  BE WORTHY - PMG, chapter 4  Teach children/ youth that they do not need to be perfect; they need to be clean.

In the Nov 2005 Ensign, David A Bednar stated, "the single most important thing you can do to prepare for a call to serve is to become a missionary long before you go on a mission. Please notice that in my answer I emphasized becomingrather than going..."

I hope these ideas will help you think of what you can do NOW and from now on to help your children/ youth prepare to serve a mission.

What the past is for...

“This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”

― Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

Forgiveness in Marriage

I read about a lecture given on Feb 21 by Dr. Frank Fincham, director of FSU's Family Institute.  A quote from the lecture:

"A happy marriage is a union of two good forgivers."

Another:

"Forgiveness is a process, not an event..."

And another:

"People in happy marriages who have been married for a long time report that one of the most important factors that has allowed them to experience these long happy marriages is the ability to grant and receive forgivess.  It is ranked one of the top five attributes of their marriage."

If you want to listen to the lecture, it's on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frSCWv9LNbY

I'm going to listen to it tomorrow morning.  I'll let you know what I think an hope you'll do the same if you listen to it.

“People Change Every Day”

From Music & the Spoken Word:

Have you ever bumped into someone you knew years ago, surprised to find how much he or she had changed for the better? Life is full of little miracles, but this is perhaps the greatest miracle of all-to see people change, grow, and improve, day by day and little by little.”

Imagine how different life would be if we saw people not for who they are right now, but for who they could become. Think of how we might respond differently to a child if we looked past his failed and messy attempts to make something and into his productive, positive future. Consider the boss, spouse, teenager, or neighbor whose occasional annoying behaviors sometimes put us at odds. What if we could see them as the better person they might become? This may be the most important way we can change-in our ability to believe in and nurture change in others.

Clinton Duffy was a prison warden in the United States during the 1940s and 50s. He was well known for his efforts to rehabilitate the men in his prison. One critic who was skeptical of these efforts said to the warden, "You should know that leopards don't change their spots!" But Duffy replied, with the wisdom and perspective that comes of experience: "You should know I don't work with leopards. I work with men, and men change every day."¹

It's not always easy to see others as they can become, and it very often takes patience and faith. Too often we give ourselves and others a reputation, a perception, that makes change difficult. But people can surprise us, even inspire us, with how they can and often will change for the better.

1. In Thomas S. Monson, "See Others as They May Become," Ensign, Nov. 2012, 69.