Child Rearing Guide per Alma

Alma 37

I LOVED this chapter. First of all, it's a chapter where Alma is giving his son Helaman advice. Really good advice. I feel like it is a blueprint to how to raise your children. In 37:6 it says-

6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

Then he goes on to give an example of this and then compares the temporal thing to spiritual things. Here is a list.

Small & Simple things:
Teach your children to hate sin
To Repent
To have Faith in Jesus Christ
To be humble
To be Meek & Lowly in heart
To withstand temptation with their faith
To Never be weary of good works
Teach them to keep the commandments
To Pray for support
To Let the Lord guide your decisions
To Direct your thoughts to the Lord
To Pray to the Lord for support
To Pray to the Lord for guidance
To Pray before bed for protection
To Pray in the morning in thanksgiving
I would add:
Family Home Evening
To work hard
Let them experience consequences for their actions
Spend quality time with them
Delayed Gratification
Self Discipline

Great Thing:
Returning to our Father in Heaven

These are all of the small things that we should be doing to reach our ultimate goal aka the The GREAT Thing which is to return to our Father in Heaven. We may think to ourselves, "Oh, my kids are too young to start learning these things." or "I don't want my kids to have a poor self-esteem so I am not going to teach them to be humble yet." What is this accomplishing? When are you going to start doing it? There is no better time than the present to begin teach kids these things. There is a lot here that I need to start doing and it's nice to get little reminder periodically.

I love reading the scriptures. It has been so fun to dive in and do this blog. I love this gospel and our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for this in my life. I know that I would not be happy and progressing in my life without the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ.