Tag Archives: prayer

Who Do You Think You Are? Thoughts on The Savior’s Grace

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Who Do You Think You Are? Thoughts on the Savior's GraceRecently, I talked to one of my friends about the hardest part of teaching our young children.  We decided that the hardest part of teaching our children is that we are still learning ourselves. Our children see our mistakes and follow our own bad examples. It is so hard to teach our kids what they need to learn but realize just how far we have to go ourselves.
That’s the big secret of parenting, and it’s the same whether you are a homeschool mom like me or a stay-at-home mom like my friend, or a mom who works outside the home as some of my other friends: none of us truly know what we are doing, and we all make mistakes!
There was no owner’s manual to guide me, or a “mom switch” that made me into a mother. I’m still the same person I was before my oldest was born, and I still have a lot to learn. This is the hardest part of being a mother.
When I am down on my self, my husband often asks me, “Well, who do you think you are? Of course you can’t do it all yourself!”
He gets it. God is the ultimate one in control.
There is only one way that any of us can get through motherhood. There is only one way for our children to turn out alright, despite the super difficult days. That way is through the grace of God.
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A Free, Simple Template for How to Pray in Spanish

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It’s never easy to get a my resistant child to practice speaking in a foreign language, so one thing I like to do is move Spanish-language speaking into our familiar, daily use with getting in the habit of using certain words and phrases. Learning to pray in Spanish is one way we can put that practice into our daily lives.
Every day, we pray together three times (or more). We pray before every meal. What could be better than blending a little bit of Spanish practice in to such a familiar activity?! Learning to pray in Spanish has been a fun way to keep Spanish vocabulary in our daily routines.pray-in-spanish Continue reading →

Lessons 9 and 10: Prayer and Fasting

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Last week, with only five minutes left in our class about prayer, I emphasized in my testimony that we should always pray –even if we don’t feel worthy. I asked the class if they knew the story of Alma the Younger. They knew it and told me about his repentance. I testified to them that even though he had sinned a lot, he still was able to pray to Heavenly Father; only after he prayed was he delivered. Therefore, we should always pray, even (and especially) when we’ve sinned and don’t feel like it.

“What if we do feel like praying?” someone asked. (I think she was trying to be difficult.)

“Of course, you should be praying then too,” I emphasized.

“So, in other words, we should always be praying,” someone else added.

That led right into the Alma 34:20-27.

I love prayer. I am so grateful for that connection with heaven. As a mother, I know I need the power of prayer to be a stronger part of my life than it has been. We really should be praying always!

And I think the concept of praying always leads very well into the concept of fasting for added strength, which is this week’s lesson.

I’m struggling with this lesson. It’s not that I don’t know what to say. I know what I’m going to do: there are great scriptures in the manual and a great quote from conference.

It’s just been such a long time since I’ve actually fasted.

I was pregnant for nine months and now I’ve been breastfeeding for six, so that means I have not physically fulfilled a complete fast for 15 months. On Fast Sundays, I still try to focus on spiritual matters and I eat less than I would normally — one bowl of cheerios instead of the sugary honey peanut corn flakes. But overall, I still feel like I’ve gone a long time without practicing this law. (Certain people have suggested to me that I could physically fast and still breastfeed fine, but I haven’t tried because I’m nervous about keeping a milk supply.)

What do you say? How I can be better at practicing the law of the fast, even when I technically cannot physically practice it? (I guess I also want to know if you think I’m being selfish by not fasting: did you fast while you were pregnant or breastfeeding?)