I Will Not Lose You

Last night as we were struggling to get our children calmed down and to read the scriptures with them, my four-year-old son who was being particularly difficult told me how he wanted to follow Satan and not Jesus.  This was his way I think of trying to get back at us because we hadn’t let him stay up and keep playing.  This is the same boy who on other occasions has told me how he misses Heavenly Father and Jesus and wants to see them.  The experience highlighted the fact that he has his own very real internal struggles as he tries to learn to make choices and find his place in our family.  To me it also underscores the need I have to spiritually fight for my son.  He will I’m certain have many ups and downs in his years ahead, and I must do everything in my power to help him learn to choose the right and to follow Jesus, not Satan.  This sentiment is what was expressed by the mother of Elder Brett Nattress.  Elder Nattress recounted this experience with his mother on a difficult morning when he was refusing to participate in their family scripture study: “Her loving response was a defining moment in my life. She said, ‘Son, I was at a meeting where President Marion G. Romney taught about the blessings of scripture reading. During this meeting, I received a promise that if I would read the Book of Mormon to my children every day, I would not lose them.  She then looked me straight in the eyes and, with absolute determination, said, ‘And I will not lose you!’”  That is the attitude that we must have towards our children as the adversary rages to spiritually take them from us—we must fight just as hard in their behalf to keep them on the path to happiness. 

                I think that we see examples of this kind of devotion to helping children live the gospel throughout the Book of Mormon.  We read that Lehi “did exhort [Laman and Lemuel] then with all the feeling of a tender parent, that they would hearken to his words, that perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them, and not cast them off” (1 Nephi 8:37).  Lehi never gave up on Laman and Lemuel, pleading with them even at the end of their lives after they had rejected him so many times: “O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound….  Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave….  I desire that ye should remember to observe the statutes and the judgments of the Lord; behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul from the beginning” (2 Nephi 1:13-16).  Lehi gave his whole heart to trying to help them choose to serve the Lord.  Nephi as well showed his complete devotion to his children and posterity.  He told us, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God….  And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:23, 26).  His labors at the end of his life were for his children, doing everything he could to leave a permanent record so that they could know of the Savior.  Alma of course was another who pled earnestly with the Lord for his wayward son.  When the angel came to Alma the Younger he told him, “Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth” (Mosiah 27:14).  Later when Alma the Younger saw that he was losing his own son Corianton to great wickedness, he put aside everything else and taught him one on one the plan of salvation, earnestly inviting him with these words, “Therefore, O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds” (Alma 42:27).      

Others in the Book of Mormon had the same devotion to teaching and helping their children live righteously: King Benjamin earnestly taught his sons (Mosiah 1:1-8), Helaman pled with his sons Nephi and Lehi to remember the Savior (Helaman 5:1-12), Mormon diligently sought to help Moroni stay true to the faith (e.g. Moroni 9:6), and the mothers of the stripling warriors had a huge impact on their sons in leading them in the right way (Alma 56:47-48).  Of course, we do not have complete control over our children and ultimately it will be their choice whether they choose to follow Jesus or the devil. But we can and must love and serve and teach and plead with our children to “put on the armor of righteousness” and “choose liberty and eternal life” (2 Nephi 1:23, 2:27).  Our determination and “anxiety of [our] soul” for each child must be like that of Sister Nattress towards her son: “I will not lose you!”