Mathis Moments

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Sleep

Sometimes I wonder how I ever manage to get any sleep around here!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

A few days ago as we were sitting down for lunch & Donaven out of the blue told me that his body is a temple and that someday he wanted to live in Heaven and be with Jesus again. He continued that in order to do that he was going to take real good care of his body by only eating good healthy thing like milk and throwing yucky bad thing like tea in the trash. I was a little taken aback. Here my four year old was sharing his testimony of the word of wisdom something that I have yet to teach him. I was really impressed with his level of understanding and the fact that something he had learned in primary several days prior had made such an impact on him. He quickly explained his displeasure at not getting a turn in primary to throw the bad stuff in the trash and it opened a window of opportunity for an unplanned teaching moment. I pulled out a very similar activity and gave him a chance to sort out the good things from the bad while discussing it together. It was a very spirit filled moment. One that I wish I could hold on to and remember always. Later when thinking back on the events of the day these words came to my mind from the the talk, Teaching our Children to Understand given in the past April General Conference;

"Sometimes the most powerful way to teach our children to understand a doctrine is to teach in the context of what they are experiencing right at that moment. These moments are spontaneous and unplanned and happen in the normal flow of family life. They come and go quickly, so we need to be alert and recognize a teaching moment when our children come to us with a question or worry, when they have problems getting along with siblings or friends, when they need to control their anger, when they make a mistake, or when they need to make a decision. (See Teaching, No Greater Call: A Resource Guide for Gospel Teaching [1999], 140–41; Marriage and Family Relations Instructor’s Manual [2000], 61.)

If we are ready and will let the Spirit guide in these situations, our children will be taught with greater effect and understanding."

I know I need to slow down a bit and be more susceptible to these fleeting moments and take advantage of the time that I have been given. Just a thought...