She Put the Music in Me

"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." 

- Doctrine & Covenants 25:12 

My love for music and so many other good things come from my mom. Growing up as she sang to me, and as I learned the songs she sang, I felt the truth of the gospel. I have many precious memories of my mom singing to me by my bedside, the piano or during FHE. She always encouraged me to listen to and sing good songs and that they could be a strength to me during times of trial. How true that is! Some of the most poignant faith building experiences I've had in my life have come through the spirit that good music brings.  

Keep singing wherever you are in your life - mom, aunt, mentor, or friend. Sing to the kids around you, they do listen to and learn from your singing. 

And to all you mother's and mothers to be - 

Happy Mother's Day!

P.S. I totally bawled through this video... anybody else having crazy waterworks? 

Behold Your Little Ones

I was released as a junior nursery leader a couple of weeks ago - we had an average of 15+ toddlers a week. Some Sundays were really tough.  I spent a lot of my time calming kids, breaking up wars over toys, pulling kids off chairs and wiping tears. I often walked away feeling exhausted and frustrated.  In the middle of the chaos, I fell in love with the kids and this manual...

I was given "Behold Your Little Ones" when I was first asked to help in the nursery. Each lesson has an outline that is easy to follow, a picture, a coloring page, and toddler-appropriate activities. The doctrine in each lesson is explained in a beautifully simplistic way. Since I've been released, this has turned into a great resource for our Family Home Evenings.

To buy a manual for $5.50 through the online distribution store click here or to you can view/download the lessons and coloring pages click here.

Articles of Faith

This is Michele here, and I wanted to share a little video of my oldest son. (I have 2 boys, ages 2.5 and 1) We set a goal as a family. I printed off these cute Article of Faith pages from Pinterest (Click HERE for the source) and determined to work on one per month of this year. In January we did Article of Faith #1, February we are doing #2, etc. I just wanted to say that I am so excited that Parker has remembered both of them so well! We recite it with our nightly routine (scriptures, song, article of faith, prayer) and I wanted to record it so you could see how he's coming along. Parker is 2 years old (he turns 3 in May) and I wouldn't have thought he would remember these but I decided to just try and have him repeat after me and sure enough, he's learning them! I want him to always know what we believe and I feel strongly that he'll need to rely on these in times of question or doubt. I figured if he can remember lines from Disney movies, he can remember lines about what we believe! :)

Recognizing the Holy Ghost

Today I gave a talk at a baptism for one of the girls in my ward- it was about having the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It got me thinking. Does each of us really know when we're feeling the Holy Ghost? And why is it so crucial to recognize it in our daily lives?

I shared the story of one of my best friends from high school, her name is Kelsey. She isn't a member of the church, but she is one of the most sincere and thoughtful and loving people I know.

We had just turned 16, so we just got our driver's licenses. One day she was driving to school and she was stopped at an intersection, preparing to turn left. The light turned green, and no one was in the intersection so normally she should have just gone and turned left. However, she didn't. She felt like she should just wait a minute. Right when she decided she should probably go, a car came ZOOMING down the intersection in the opposite direction, running the red light. If she would have turned left, it would have crashed right in to her and she could have been seriously hurt.

Later she came to me, told me the story, and knowing what I believe asked why that happened to her; why she didn't just turn left. It was an opportunity for me to share with her about the Holy Ghost and how in feeling like she should wait, she felt a prompting from the Holy Ghost to protect her and keep her safe.

We are all children of our Heavenly Father, and He loves us and wants us to be safe and happy. He is watching over us, and through the Holy Ghost, He can talk to us and let us know His will. The key is to know how the Holy Ghost talks to us. Some people feel a warm, peaceful feeling. Some people hear a still, small, voice. In Galatians 5:22-23 it says "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

In Kelsey's case, she felt a feeling inside her that she needed to wait. I also need to mention that there is a difference between feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost, which she did, and have the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which can only come after being baptized by the proper authority, and then receiving it by the laying on of hands.  

Teach your children how to feel the Holy Ghost. After we sang the closing song at the baptism, I watched this little girl's Primary teacher come up to her and hold her hands as she asked her how she felt. She said "good, happy" and her teacher taught, "That's the Holy Ghost." Once our children can recognize HOW they feel the Holy Ghost, they will be able to seek it more and more and it will be a guiding influence for good in their lives forever. 

(For more about this read chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel- it is titled, "Recognize the Spirit.")