Parenthood, A Great Responsibility

“No amount of success can compensate for failure in the home…(To be a parent is) the greatest trust that has been given to human beings.” (David O. McKay) Being a parent is a great responsibility and many times we can get discouraged. So many times we feel disheartened because our children will not respond to us, or listen to our advice. Because of all the outside influences such as radio, television, unsavory movies, and peers, we have to make sure we are sending our children out with a mighty shield of protection. We must teach values, have rules and standards, there must be principles and absolutes in the family, along with prayer. If we start in our own homes to make the world a better place, then it will spread to the community and schools, each generation becoming better than the last.

Barbara Bush, wife of President George Bush, said to a group of graduates at Wellesley College, “Whatever the era, whatever the times, one thing will never change: Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children and you must hug your children and you must love your children. Your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.” (Washington Post, 2 June 1990, p. 2.)

It is in the home that children learn integrity, respect, love, honesty, decency, uprightness, and chastity. We should teach respect for religion, patriotism, and for the law. Example is the best teacher. If we expect our children to be honest, then we must be honest. If we want our children to respect others and the law, then we must respect our children. Cynicism destroys hope and only creates rebelliousness. Remember that our children learn by example. We must first stop and examine ourselves and if a change must take place, then do it.

Goethe said that if you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is; but if you treat him as he could be, then he will become what he ought to be.

We must teach our children how to work, take responsibility, and learn independence. Our children will value material things much more if they earn them. There is an irony in the fact that parents want their children to be self-sufficient and independent, but at the same time they give too much. Neal A. Maxwell said, “Those who do too much for their children will soon find they can do nothing with their children. So many children have been so much done for, they are almost done in.”

John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John 1:4) Isn’t this how most parents feel? My mother once sent me a poem that deeply touched me. It was how she felt as a mother, and for the first time I understood why she struggled to teach us right principles. I am sure that many parents have felt this.

THE MONUMENT

I asked her once when I was young,
Dear mother, are you great?
And will there some day be a stone
That will commemorate
The deeds you’ve done to help the world?
My mother smiled at me;
You are my monument, she said,
And all the world shall see
In your dear face, and in your life
The ideals of your mother.
You are my monument, she said,
I would not want another.
And now I must stand straight and tall
And now I must be true
To all the dreams you had for me—
The monument to you.----Unknown

Copyright 2006