Their Children Lifted Their Voices

After the Lord miraculously delivered the people of Alma from bondage to the Lamanites, the group traveled to a valley they called Alma and gave thanks to the Lord: “Yea, and in the valley of Alma they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God.” They immediately turned to gratitude when they realized how the Lord had delivered them, and I was struck by the fact that all of them participated in giving thanks: “And they gave thanks to God, yea, all their men and all their women and all their children that could speak lifted their voices in the praises of their God” (Mosiah 24:21-22). Even their little children prayed to God in thanks for the way that the Lord had delivered them. This means that their parents instructed them to pray and to show gratitude to the Lord for His blessings. These parents taught their children how to see the hand of the Lord in their lives and to give thanks for how He had blessed them. It is a reminder that one of our most important roles as a parent is to teach our children to pray and to see the blessings of the Lord in their lives.

                My wife and I talked to a friend yesterday who told of some of the challenges of her children who have moved out of the house but recently have needed a lot of help. When several of them at once came with different needs to her she related how she and her husband wondered, “Haven’t we taught our children to be self-sufficient?” They are great parents and I am sure they have indeed taught them well, but it was a good reminder to me that one of my roles is to try to teach my children to be self-sufficient and to learn to do things for themselves. They will one day leave our home, and will they be able to take care of their own basic needs and manage their lives appropriately at that point? Alma’s story is a reminder that one of the best ways that we can help them to be ready for that day when they will be on their own is to teach them to pray and to love the Lord. We talk a lot about “self-reliance” in the Church, and rightly so. But ultimately none of us is truly reliant only on ourselves; rather, we must learn to rely on the Lord and gain strength and help from Him. If we know how to seek and obtain His help through fervent prayer, we will be prepared to face any challenge that we face in life. The Lord taught this very plainly to parents in a modern-day revelation: “Again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents…. And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 68:28). We need to teach our children the first principles of the gospel including faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. With that we must teach them specifically how to pray through which they strengthen their faith, express their repentance, and petition for the Holy Ghost. A testimony of prayer and a knowledge that they should turn to the Lord in prayer both to give thanks and to receive help like the people of Alma will be of more worth to them than anything they will learn in school or that the world will teach them.

                Yesterday my four-year-old daughter overheard a conversation that was being had by adults about natural disasters, and she picked up on it. She turned to me a little later and asked me, “Dad, when the earthquake comes, will it destroy the whole world or just our own house?” She had understood that an earthquake was coming, and that clearly caused her to start worrying about what that would mean for her. We could of course assure her that she did not need to be afraid of anything, but some day we will not be there to always reassure her or to bring her comfort when the dangers and challenges and trials of life are upon her. And so, we must prepare her by teaching her to pray to her Father in Heaven with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ just as Alma taught his people: “But Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them. Therefore they hushed their fears, and began to cry unto the Lord that he would soften the hearts of the Lamanites, that they would spare them, and their wives, and their children” (Mosiah 23:27-28). If our children know how to cry unto the Lord in both times of trouble and times of thanksgiving, they will have all the help they need to make it through this life.    

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