Testimonies of Children

In the last general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard said this about our monthly fast and testimony meeting: “Young children should practice sharing their testimonies in Primary and with their parents in family home evening gatherings until they understand the important meaning of a testimony” (see here).  He seemed to be alluding to the slightly more direct counsel given in the Church handbook about children in fast and testimony meeting: “It may be best to have young children learn to share their testimonies in settings such as family home evening or when giving talks in Primary until they are old enough to do so in a fast and testimony meeting without assistance from a parent, sibling, or other person” (Section 18.2.3 of Handbook 2, see here).  In other words, children should not be whispered what they are to say in a testimony; they should do it on their own if they want to do it.  It is fairly common I think for that to occur, and surely in nearly all cases the intentions are noble; a child wants to get up but says he or she is too scared to do it alone, and the parent then goes up and helps by whispering what to say.  So what is the principle behind the request not to do this? 

                Thinking about this reminds me of Elder Ballard’s talk entitled “The Greatest Generation of Missionaries” that came shortly before the release of Preach My Gospel.  In it he said that we need “the greatest generation of missionaries in the history of the Church” and that we need “vibrant, thinking, passionate, missionaries who know how to listen to and respond to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit” (see here).  Part of the thrust of Preach My Gospel was the need for missionaries to be able to speak and explain and testify for themselves of the principles of the gospel instead of simply memorizing lessons.  In that same spirit, surely we want the youngest in the Church to likewise develop that ability to think and testify for themselves.  As we live in a world that tries to entice our children away from spiritual things at an earlier age than ever before, they will have to develop the ability to stand up for what is right at a very young age.  Parents will not be there to whisper in their ears the truths that we hope they know when it really counts, and so the sooner they can stand on their own faith and testimony the better off they will be.  If we want to keep having the greatest generation of missionaries, then I guess we need to work on having the greatest generation of Primary kids!

                When the resurrected Lord was among the Nephites, He showed them in a miraculous way the power that children’s words could have.  “He did teach and minister unto the children of the multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people” (3 Nephi 26:14).  It was the children who taught their fathers, not the other way around.  Perhaps too often we forget as we focus on teaching our children that they have much to teach us.  If Christ would choose the children to teach greater things than even He had taught, then surely there are messages our children have for us if we will truly listen.  If we try too hard to script their prayers or their testimonies or their interactions with the Savior perhaps we might actually inhibit their spiritual development.  Recently when my son did something to his sister that merited an apology, I told him that he had to give it.  But try as I did, I simply could not make him apologize.  I wanted him to feel sorry for a mistake on my own timeline and follow my prescribed steps for restitution.  It clearly didn’t work.  But on another occasion I found him in a room cleaning up something and he immediately started to apologize and tell me that he was sorry and didn’t want to go to timeout and was never going to do it again.  He was sorry of his own accord and desperately wanted to get forgiveness from me.  Using his own language and own volition he apologized and taught me much more about repentance than my attempted forced apologies had taught him.  Dictated confessions from children mean far less than those that really come from their heart.  And I guess for testimonies the principle is the same.