Behold Your Little Ones

Six months ago Elder Uchtdorf spoke about the new For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and taught, “To be very clear, the best guide you can possibly have for making choices is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the strength of youth. So the purpose of For the Strength of Youth is to point you to Him.” His talk last week in general conference extended this message as he taught, “Just as Jesus Christ is the strength of youth, Jesus Christ is also the strength of parents.” Surely there is no task that we need more help from the Savior in than that of raising children in this difficult world! Elder Uchtdorf’s message was that we need to turn to the Savior for strength and help and revelation in this sacred responsibility. He said, “Fortunately, there is a divine source of help for parents: It is Jesus Christ. He is the source of our mighty change of heart. As you open your heart to the Savior and His teachings, He will show you your weakness. If you trust Jesus Christ with a humble heart, He will make weak things become strong. He is the God of miracles. Does that mean you and your family will be picture-perfect? No. But you will get better. Through the Savior’s grace, little by little, you’ll develop more of the attributes parents need: love for God and His children, patience, selflessness, faith in Christ, and courage to make righteous choices.” Those are indeed crucial Christlike attributes that we as parents should strive develop in order to care for our children: our teaching should be filled with patience, our service should be offered selflessly, our example should display our faith in the Savior, our obedience to the commandments should be done with courage, and in short all our actions should be motivated by love.

                The Savior taught Nephite parents about how they should treat their little ones with a powerful visual lesson. After He blessed the Nephite children and prayed for them in a marvelous display of His love, He gave this penetrating invitation to parents: “Behold your little ones.” So what did He want them to behold? Presumably the answer is simple: He wanted them to see what they next saw. The account continues: “And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them” (3 Nephi 17:23-24). So why did He want them to see this scene of angels coming down and ministering to their children? Perhaps at least part of the answer to that question is that He hoped they would behold how these angels treated their little ones, thus implicitly inviting the parents to do the same. The angels came down into the midst of the children, encircled them about with fire, and cared for them in a most glorious way. We as parents should strive to emulate that example: coming down to their level to be with them; encircling them in our homes with the fires of faith, love, and the Holy Ghost; and ministering to them with love in their needs. It would be inconceivable to think that these angels yelled at the children or mistreated them or belittled them or did anything not in harmony with the spirit of that moment with the Savior present. And so too it should be with us—we should strive to be like those angels to our children, serving under the invitation of the Savior and encompassing our little ones with the warm light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we make Him our strength, we can in our homes, like in that ancient experience, “create a rich environment for teaching truth and building faith.” We can “make [our] home a house of prayer, learning, and faith; a house of joyful experiences; a place of belonging; a house of God.” And He can help us to truly behold our little ones as He sees them so we can become the parents He wants us to become.