Raising Sage with God
I am temporarily back from being MIA from the blogging world. I'm planning to disappear again immediately after posting.
Since the beginning of the year, Sage has lost some dear friends to full time preschool and kindergarten, she has been moaning her loss ever since. Today, we stopped by to see a friend of mine for a quick hello before going visiting teaching to another person down the road. By some amazing luck, Sage's long lost friend Josh was home from kindergarten. Of course, there was no way I had any luck talking Sage into going visiting teaching with me. So she stayed and played. The following conversation was captured by Josh's dad.
Sage: "We're playing Mom and Dad. I'm the Mom, you're the Dad and
these are our babies."
Joshua: Making a face, "Nooooooaaa!!! I'm a transformer!"
Sage: "I thought we were playing Mom and Dad and you're the Dad!"
Joshua: "OK...
Isn't compromise great?
Sage: "If you play Mom and Dad with me, I'll let you drive the car."
Joshua: "I don't care. I just want to play this."
Sage:
Joshua:
Sage:
with me something I want to play, I will, will love them."
The Joshua/Sage soap goes on and on, quite funny. In the end, Sage decided to play cars with Joshua as long as he didn't, "get her in trouble."
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To be honest, Sage can be a brat and a handful. After she gives me attitude, she storms off to her room and slams the door. Andrew's pediatric attending told him that slamming doors is one of the signs of puberty, Andrew said: My four year old already is doing that!
Sage told me that I was her stepmother because I wouldn't give her what she wants. Some of the days I simply don't like her very much. Every time she gives me an episode of storming off to her room and slamming the door, I worry about how Sage will turn out as a teenager and an adult. I feel strongly that the latter day kids are born to be more stubborn and willful than ever before so when they decide to choose the right, they can remain strong for what's coming at them in this world. I have to keep saying that to myself some days just to stay sane.
It is with this thought that I would like to talk about the tender mercies of the Lord. While I was straightening up the bookshelves recently, I felt an impression that I should read the Book of Mormon Stories with Sage. If you don't know what it is, it is a children's version of the Book of Mormon with vivid drawings of the events in the scriptures.
We had a few moments of struggle when I first tried to read it to her, she tried to boss me and acted like she knew the stories more than me. But I held firm and she finally gave in and I was able to read to her from the first pages telling her about Joseph Smith and the gold plates. I couldn't believe how much she enjoyed it. She took it all in and was very attentive to what I had to say. Reading the scriptures to Sage brought the spirit to my heart, and it helped me to see her as a person who God loves very much.
I am grateful to be able to receive that prompting to read the scriptures to Sage in ways she could understand. As a family, we have been reading "grown up scriptures" since Sage was born because all of our children read well, so we haven't been focusing so much on reading it at Sage's level. I feel with each additional child we add to the family, the less I am able to focus on each single one and their needs. Sometimes the task of mothering is overwhelming, and I feel like I am not reaching my kids like I should. I think sometimes I just want to quick fix my kids, I lose sight of how to teach them God's way.
God showed my his tender mercy when I least expected. I felt He wants me to stay with the basics as a mom. After all we can do, as long as we teach our children the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring Jesus's teaching into our daily living, they will feel his influence at home. And after everything we do for our children, this is the most important thing we CAN do for them.
I wonder how long I will be writing about my willful Sage on this blog. I wonder if everything I am doing for her will eventually yield a wholesome young woman? I wonder if you will get to see pictures of her with her beautiful dark hair and radiant smile on this blog posing in her wedding grown in front of a temple on her wedding day? Here is an interesting thought, if we all keep writing about our kids on our blogs, no matter if we never see each other again or where we are in this world, we will literally watch each other's kids grow up to adulthood in cyber space... something to think about for a while, huh?
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6 comments:
Great post!
I never thought of them being stubborn and willful so that they will be able to stay true. That is great!
What a great post. I think you captured perfectly, the feelings of all moms who are trying to do what's best for their children. I forget all the time whose children they really are... thanks for the reminder.
I like the conversation at the beginning. I over hear conversations like that all the time. So funny!
amen, sister :o)
Loved your thoughts. Some great reminders. You are such a great mom always trying to do the right thing. I sometimes miss the drama created by girls. I live in a boy world except for when my grand daughters come to visit.
My girls slam doors to. I can't imagine, where they learned that from! (I'm sure it has nothing to do with my slamming doors). I love how you focused on reading the scriptures and not just trying to fix behavior. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
You are a very good writer. I enjoyed this. My little Mercedes reminds me so much of your Sage. She is so strong willed and it is so difficult. But on the other side, I feel like the harder we work with/for our children the more we love them. We invest in them and then we can't help but love them more than we could have ever understood!
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