Divine Nature

I'm sorry it's taken me so long!! Life has just been a little crazy lately! Yesterday I wasn't home until 6:00 p.m.! I have a new calling and it is keeping me really busy. I am the new Stake Young Women's Secretary. It's fun! I'm learning a lot! When I went to my first meeting, I was surprised to hear that the other presidency members are working on their Personal Progress too! They made it a goal for this year. Maybe I was inspired to do this!

Divine Nature has been a challenge for me. This may sound lazy, but most of the experiences take two weeks to finish them.....I have a hard time remembering what I'm doing for that long! I've been kind of skipping through some of them and I will get back to them. Here is one that I thought would be good for me to do.

Divine Nature #5

Obedience is an attribute of the Savior. Strive to be more obedient to you parents. Read Luke 2:40-51 and John 6:38. Develop a pattern of obedience as you make a special effort to treat your parents with respect and kindness and do what your parents ask you to do without having to be reminded. After two weeks record in your journal how being more obedient motivated you to want to continue doing so and how it has helped you understand your divine nature and the divine roles of mothers and fathers.

Obviously, this sounds a little weird since I am a grown up and I don't live with my parents. As I was reading it though, I thought that I would change the word from "parents" to "Children". How many of us obey our children?? I find myself constantly telling my kids "Just a minute" when they ask me to do something. BUT, when I ask them to do something, I expect it to be done right then and I get angry when they tell me "just a minute". I'm really not being a great example! For the next two weeks, I am going to be more obedient to my children. I'm going to do things for them without being asked and when they do ask me, I will get off my lazy butt and do it for them right away!

If you are already obedient to your children, You could try being more obedient to your husband. I know that is something I also need to work on. I'll try better to update this blog more often to let you know how things are going on this one.

Divine Nature

I don't know why, but I really had a hard time paying attention to the scripture reading for Divine Nature #1, so I'm going to skip it for now. Here is Divine Nature #2:

As a Young Woman (which we still are!) you are blessed with divine feminine qualities. Increase your understanding of and appreciation for womanhood. Read Proverbs 31:10-31 and two talks on womanhood from a conference issue of the Church magazines. Review what "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" says about being a wife and a mother. Then ask your mother or another mother you admire what she thinks are important attributes for being a mother.

I really loved this. Being a better mom is definitely something I am striving for. In the Proclamation it says, "Husband and Wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord". Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. (Here is the really important part) Husbands and wives-mothers and fathers-will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

It also says that "Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children" and that "fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."

Read Proverbs 31:10-31. It's beautiful, but it makes me tired! Mothers are responsible for a lot! There are two attributes I would love to have as a mother. The first is, obviously, Patience! With all of these girls in my house and all their hormones (which I know have hardly kicked in yet), I pray for Patience daily! The second comes from my mother. She never talked badly about us to other people and she always wanted us around. I was never treated as "just a child". I was always treated like a person, who has feelings just like everyone else. She never talked down to us, but included us in everything. She told me that she never wanted to complain about us because if she did, then people would think that we were bad all the time. We weren't bad all the time, we just made mistakes like everyone else. She really treated us with respect. I think that is really hard sometimes, especially if I have lost all my Patience. I love my kids and I would never want them to hear me bad mouthing them. I think that as mothers, it's our job to always lift others instead of bringing them down. Let's all try to be more respectful to our children and say 3 good things about each of them to someone else today!