Comments about ‘Mormon Parenting: Eyres: Understanding the eternal and spiritual nature of our kids’

Interesting to me is the term "kids" when we are talking about God's children.

"Kids" is so informal and when we refer to them as such so are our attitudes. As a wise man once said in a meeting: "Remember, you grow crops, you raise cattle and your rear children; you do not 'raise kids.' Do not offend people by referring to their off-spring as 'kids.'"

Just using the term "children" elevates the feelings one gets when discussing their nature, training, well being, attributes, potential, etc.

When asked "how many kids do you have?" I always respond "I have three children." (My wife is not a goat.) That puts across the point to some, not to others.

RE: Understanding the eternal and spiritual nature of our kids(childs).

Part of the problem is our sinful human nature. “For the natural man is an enemy to God and has been from the fall of Adam and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticing of the Holy spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord and becometh as a child…" Mosiah 3:19.… =…and were by nature the children of wrath,even as others.(Epheisans 2:3)

"we are unworthy because the fall of our natures have become evil continually…" Ether 3:2.

“ Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”. (Ps 51:5 NIV)
These wicked people are born sinners;even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.(Psalm 58:3 NLT)

Sooooo refreshing to read this, when over at the Huffington Post you’ve got a dad writing a letter to his unborn, in utero son acknowledging that if the child is gay he’ll be completely loved and accepted. And then you have commenters on that article gushing over how beautiful the thoughts of that dad are.

The adversary rages in our day and has people completely buffaloed about the nature of sin. We are in the Last Days. Thank you, Eyres, for sharing your wisdom and your experience.

Central to the Mormon Revolution in Christian thought is the idea that we all chose to be here, that we shouted for joy at The Way that was made. We can see that we are all differently gifted and differently challenged, and to us, it often looks unfair. This is because we don't and can't know the whole story. Perhaps the greatest honors are to be born with disorders of the body and mind, or to aching poverty, or to have promise destroyed by illness or injury. Perhaps these are callings reserved for only the strongest of us, those who can bend their knees and confess the Christ in spite of and because of the lives they experienced. Being a parent sometimes means having a place at the foot of the cross upon which a child suffers. Both our love and our pain are our choices. The Savior has charged us with holding to the one and giving the other to Him.

My mother was told in her youth that she would never have children of her own. So when I arrived, it was a shock. Followed by 9 more shocks. But being raised LDS and having expected for years that she would only have children through adoption, she came to the gardening analogy, as you also suggested. For all my life, I've been blessed by her understand, as have my children.

The Gardener

If you were a gardener, your child the seed,
your task it would be to nurture and weed
'way wild things that threaten destruction and strife,
and prepare the young plant for the rigors of life.

But a daisy's a daisy. A rose is a rose.
The plant must be true to its form as it grows.
True to the form from the maker sent,
and not to the will of the gardener bent.

Pat Chiu

Thank you, Richard and Linda for your inspiring messages that provide guidance and information for all of us to glean the important things you have learned, studied and prayed about over your lives. You too, came with great knowledge and the ability to provide teaching moments for all of us. You have an audience you are trying to reach and do so much for our humanity within your area of expertise and willingness to share with us.

You also bring that special talent to this earth for God's children and our kids. Thanks, again for your loving way of expressing these feelings and thoughts to us.

I'm just impressed that sharrona quotes LDS scripture to support the message without bashing. kudos!