This year in church the Primary theme was "I Know The Scriptures Are True". I have LOVED listening to the things the boys have learned in Primary as they've listened to their teacher and leaders. This has been Hunter's first year in Primary (he's a Sunbeam - the youngest group in Primary) and it has been amazing to hear him sing the songs, or repeat the things he learns in Primary. He might look like he's not listening in class or sharing time, but he is! I love hearing him repeat simple (and sometimes not-so-simple) gospel truths.
So today the kids presented their yearly program in Sacrament Meeting. It's a meeting once a year where the kids in Primary share the songs and lessons they've learned through the year. Every child generally will have a speaking part, interspersed throughout the music they've also learned. It's a beautiful, touching meeting - one of my favorite of the year! This year both boys had parts. Gabe said, "I felt good when I went to visit the temple with my family." Hunter's part was, "I am thankful to Heavenly Father for my 2 dogs." My heart melted to hear them at the microphone and I loved the music!
But what was even more beautiful and special was what happened later - at home with our family. The boys were given scripture marking pencils with a treat to tell them "good job" on the program. They wanted to mark a couple scriptures in their own Book of Mormons. I tried to explain that we didn't just mark up our scriptures, but we purposefully chose scriptures to underline - scriptures that were important to us. Gabe said, "But Mom, I have a scripture that's special to me - we read about it when Nephi needed to get the plates from Laban and he said, 'I will go and do what you asked me to do.'" So he brought me his Book of Mormon and we opened it to the scripture in 1st Nephi 3:7:
So today the kids presented their yearly program in Sacrament Meeting. It's a meeting once a year where the kids in Primary share the songs and lessons they've learned through the year. Every child generally will have a speaking part, interspersed throughout the music they've also learned. It's a beautiful, touching meeting - one of my favorite of the year! This year both boys had parts. Gabe said, "I felt good when I went to visit the temple with my family." Hunter's part was, "I am thankful to Heavenly Father for my 2 dogs." My heart melted to hear them at the microphone and I loved the music!
But what was even more beautiful and special was what happened later - at home with our family. The boys were given scripture marking pencils with a treat to tell them "good job" on the program. They wanted to mark a couple scriptures in their own Book of Mormons. I tried to explain that we didn't just mark up our scriptures, but we purposefully chose scriptures to underline - scriptures that were important to us. Gabe said, "But Mom, I have a scripture that's special to me - we read about it when Nephi needed to get the plates from Laban and he said, 'I will go and do what you asked me to do.'" So he brought me his Book of Mormon and we opened it to the scripture in 1st Nephi 3:7:
"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."
I had pointed to the verse and Gabe started reading it. He got about 2/3 the way through the verse (reading 95% of the words on his own) and said, "MOM! I'M READING THE SCRIPTURES!!!" His eyes lit up and he was excited that his reading was coming in handy and HE was doing the reading this time around. He was thrilled and wanted to call Nana and Papa on the webcam to read his new favorite scripture to them too. It gave me goosebumps and my eyes filled with tears - my little guy was reading, he was reading the scriptures, and he was excited about it! It was one of the moments that made it all worth it.
So I said to he and Hunter, "It's great to be able to read the scriptures, and then after you've read the Book of Mormon for yourself you can pray about it and find out for yourself if it's true." Gabe said, "But Mom, why would we need to do that? We already KNOW that the sciprtures are true." I explained that it's important for us to each know for ourselves if something is true and we can pray to find out for ourselves. Gabe said, "Yeah, but I already KNOW myself!" Then Hunter chimed in and said, "Yeah Mom, just like in the song we sing in Primary - 'I KNOW The Scriptures Are True'!" They were both so adamant that they already knew for themselves that the gospel and scriptures are true.
What a proud and humbling parenting moment. Looking at those boys and their undeniable faith and knowledge that the scriptures are true humbled me. If they had no doubt in their sweet minds, then I as their mother need to be sure that my faith is unshakable and firm as ever. Now I know that my job is not done, and that there will be opprotunities all along my parenting journey to instill gospel truths and testimony building opprotunities - but it felt so good to know that their foundation we're helping them build was founded on a belief that the scriptures are true. I know that foundations like that will bless their lives, and many more in the years to come. I sure do love those boys and their sweet testimonies!
