Starting Off on the Right Foot

As a family, we have always loved music. When K. and I were dating we enjoyed attending concerts and sharing songs that meant something to us. In fact, the first time I was struck by K’s kindness, it was because he gave me a CD that I had borrowed and enjoyed. It was the soundtrack to the Seminary videos for the Doctrine and Covenants. He had lent it to me and when I tried to give it back, he said I could keep it because he could easily get another. (His Mom was a seminary teacher at the time.) Little did we know that we would end up with two copies, or each other for that matter! When Munchkin was born I sang primary songs to her every night before she went to bed and that tradition of singing has continued for a long time.

Music is still a major part of our family. Each morning after breakfast and before hitting the day, I sit with the kids for our family devotional. The idea for this devotional came to me during my evening prayers the night before school started this year. I knew in the instant the thought occurred that it was a whispering of the Spirit, but I had no idea how much it would change the spirit and feeling in our home. I also didn’t know what we would do during the devotional, but what I did know was that it was a way for me to pray to our Heavenly Father before sending our children out into the world. I needed for the kids to hear me pray for them and to know that when I send them out the door, I am trusting our Father in Heaven to take care of them. Perhaps I needed it more than they did, some little way to soothe my nerves and calm my spirit as I prepared to let them grow up a little more. Our devotional gave me that chance. The first morning I knew that for the time being, I would teach the kids one of the hymns out of the church Hymnal. First up – “Have I Done Any Good In The World Today?” This was our first year in the public schools after spending two years in a private, Christian school. Munchkin was super nervous, (me too!) Valiant was excited to be going into Kindergarten, and Bug would be going into her first year of preschool. I knew that one of the best ways to smooth the transition into a new year would be to look for other people that they might serve. Munchkin was given an ounce of optimism by hearing that the best way to make friends at a new school would be to look for someone who looks like they need a friend. Time will tell if the lesson sticks huh? Nevertheless, the kids now know the song and the addition of our morning devotional has made a huge difference in three noticeable areas of our life: First, the kids seem to get along better on the days that we do it. Second, they seem to listen to me a bit more, or rather, they are more obedient. Third, their sacrament meeting behavior has improved DRASTICALLY!! We haven’t had to pull Valiant out of the chapel for a time out even once since the beginning of the year, and we notice a significant shift in his whole being if we make time to have devotional before church. (Ha! WAY easier said than done. )

I am so grateful that I was listening to the spirit that night before school started. I will be the first one to tell you that this is a job that I can’t do alone. There are moments of every day that I wonder what is going on inside those little minds. What were they thinking???? LOL! If I can get past my own frustrations, and fatigue, and preoccupations for long enough, the spirit is usually able to turn the question ‘what were they thinking’ into ‘what do they need?’ For instance, last week Bug (my 3 ½ year old daughter) turned into a super touchy, very mad porcupine bug. One night after the kids were in bed I was thinking about her and the thought came to my mind, “she needs you to hold her more, to tickle her more, to spend more time with her and to keep her close by especially when Valiant and Munchkin are home.” In other words, Bug needed me to give her what her older brother and sister had experienced at her age. It’s easy to let her go through most of the day without a ton of interaction from me because she is easily engaged by M. or V. It was the voice of the Holy Ghost that told me what she needed, and I listened. The next day I did just what HE said, and do you know what? It worked. She LOVED it. Every snuggle, every hug, everything…she ate it up. Then she turned back into the adorable, happy little girl that we love.

Did I do that? No…It wasn’t me just like it wasn’t me that had the idea to have a 15 minute devotional every morning. It’s often been said that God will make more out of our lives than we will. If that is true for each one of us then it must be true for our children too right? I am SO GRATEFUL that I know where to turn for help with these four beautiful children. The answers are not in Secrets of the Baby Whisperer or in Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood (though I have both of those books and they are great) rather they are in the answers to prayer. I know that God speaks to me through the quiet voice of the Holy Ghost. (No wonder those promptings come when the kids are all asleep!!) HE knows. HE knows what I need, even when I don’t know what I need, and HE knows what HIS four children need….ESPECIALLY when I don’t know what they need. As I sit in bed writing this, countless examples of how this has worked in my life are popping into my mind. Like the promptings that told me Bug was going to be a girl, even when my OB said the baby I was carrying was going to be a boy. (Haha. I told you so!)

Then there was the prompting that told me to put my 6 week old baby girl on her stomach to sleep. This in answer to a desperate prayer, “Please help me…I have LOVED holding her non-stop for 6 weeks in the recliner, but I really, really want to lay down in my bed.” What! On her stomach? But the doct…the maga…what??? She’ll die…of SIDS…they will call DCFS on me….but wait – I know that voice. That was the voice of the spirit telling me that it’s what she needs. So I did it, and do you know what? She slept, like a teenager. She still sleeps on her stomach. God knew. He still knows what she needs, and what they all need.

If our morning devotional can start our day off on the right foot and if a Mother who listens to the prompting of the spirit can start our children’s lives off on the right foot, then what else is there? Haha, not to break the serious mood this post has taken, but you know what my first thought there was? Diet Dr. Pepper. It’s bad, I know!….anyway…

This is a picture I found on a google search.

From the 'Just a Moment, Mom's Praying' page.