Recently I was riding in the car with my son. As we were talking, my son seemed discouraged and worried about little insignificant things. He said, “Life is so complicated!!” I felt prompted to tell him I had felt the exact same way and went through the same thing when I was his age.
I remember when I was twelve years old; I went to girls’ camp. One night I was sitting around the camp fire thinking about my life and future. I was worried about making good choices and not having confidence in making little decisions. The big decisions seemed easy, but the little decisions leading up to the big decisions were the ones I was worried about.
My Bishop sat with us around the campfire and said to all the young women, “Girls, I will make you a promise. If you will read your scriptures and pray every day, you will make your mistakes, but you will never fall into serious transgression.” I remember so well his promise and I have been relying on that promise ever since.
As a parent, I feel it is important to tell our children the principles of the gospel we know are true. However, perhaps more importantly, we need to tell them HOW we know they are true.
When I told my son my experience – how little things would not matter and everything would be ok – peace came into the car. My son turned to me and said, “I love you mom.”
-Submitted by Rebekah Richards, Farmington Utah North Stake