Leading By Example

Last night (okay, so I'm late in posting...last Wednesday night) was spectacular for many reasons, but I will only share two. The first? I moved the first load of "stuff" into MY apartment!! I even put the pots and pans away in the cupboard!I'm just a little excited (!!!!!!!!!!!)! The second? Institue class started again! I have missed having this class every week to give me an extra spiritual boost.

This year we will be studying the Book of Mormon! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about that! Please don't misunderstand. I LOVE the Bible. I just completed reading the Old AND New Testaments this year for the first time in their entirety. That just meant the Book of Mormon was next in my goal to read the standard works this year. When I started reading from it again consistently and more in depth (its hard to divide reading time between multiple books, you know?), I felt a power that I hadn't really noticed before. I know there are always blessings and power that comes from reading the scriptures, but it was amazing how much MORE power I found when reading from the Book of Mormon as opposed to the Bible. Again, I love both books. They testify of the the same truths. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ (which the Bible also does). I can't explain it...you'll just have to read it for yourself to feel what I feel (and it's amazing!!).

So, back to last night (anyone else notice just how much I ramble?). We discussed the introduction pages to the Book of Mormon, as well as the first five chapters. We talked about Lehi being commanded to take his family and flee Jerusalem before it would be destroyed. We talked about how Lehi and Sariah taught their children, and ultimately we came up with their example.  And I guess that's an obvious answer, but what our teacher, Sister Christiansen, said next was what struck me the most and is encouraging me to change even more (for the better).

She said that we should live so our children will know the scriptures through the way we live. Sure, we want to teach them to read and study, to make sure they know the stories and how to apply them to their lives, but what we really want them to know is that we know them because we live what we're taught in them. I'm clearly not a parent yet, but I'm trying to become NOW the parent I want to be SOMEDAY! As I've mentioned multiple times on this blog, I've made some pretty big (and equally small) changes in my life over the last year or so to help me accomplish this end goal, so to speak. I KNOW I have more to do, but statements like this get me thinking, and more importantly, doing.