I spoke in sacrament meeting today. Did plenty of stressing beforehand, shed some annoying tears during, and breathed many huge sighs of relief once it was over. I have decided I much prefer teaching Relief Society over speaking in church, even though they both intimidate the heck out of me. I would much rather ask the questions and let other people share their answers than try to give answers....It was a great topic to research though: Strengthening families. The more I researched, the more I realized I have to work on. One thing that stood out to me especially that I really want and need to work on as far as parenting goes is "dealing with problems privately". Too often when one of my children misbehaves, I correct them or lash out verbally immediately no matter who happens to be in the room. I really hope I can learn from this story from Elder F. Enzio Busche from a general conference address about how to make sure you do any correcting one-on-one and with love,
"One day when circumstances made it necessary for me to be at home at an unusual time, I witnessed from another room how our eleven-year-old son, just returning from school, was directing ugly words towards his younger sister. They were words that offended me—words that I had never thought our son would use. My first natural reaction in my anger was to get up and go after him. Fortunately, I had to walk across the room and open a door before I could reach him, and I remember in those few seconds I fervently prayed to my Heavenly Father to help me to handle the situation. Peace came over me. I was no longer angry.
"Our son, being shocked to see me home, was filled with fear when I approached him. To my surprise I heard myself saying, 'Welcome home, son!' and I extended my hand as a greeting. And then in a formal style I invited him to sit close to me in the living room for a personal talk. I heard myself expressing my love for him. I talked with him about the battle that every one of us has to fight each day within ourselves.
"As I expressed my confidence in him, he broke into tears, confessing his unworthiness and condemning himself beyond measure. Now it was my role to put his transgression in the proper perspective and to comfort him. A wonderful spirit came over us, and we ended up crying together, hugging each other in love and finally in joy. What could have been a disastrous confrontation between father and son became, through the help from the powers above, one of the most beautiful experiences of our relationship that we both have never forgotten."
Sorry, I know that is a long quote, but I want to learn from it....
And Tori's self-portrait will end the night. That's how we all feel about the snow tonight.
