Like my Mother

I was sitting in the mother's room at church and was listening to the other ward's sacrament meeting and heard a couple of very good talks that really touched me.

The first was a young woman.  The theme of the meeting was the 13th Article of Faith (for those who don't know what those are, click here) which is actually the mutual theme this year.  So the following is a brief synopsis of what the young woman was saying:  I was looking at what it said, "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men..." and was trying to think of someone who exemplified all of those qualities and I immediately thought of my mom.  My mom is the truest example of someone who is honest, true, chaste, benevolent, and virtuous.  She went on to say more about her mom and what kind of things she did that showed her daughter how to live and act. 

There I sat, nursing Baby Boy with tears streaming down my cheeks and the thought crossed my mind, am I living in a way that my children can say that about me?  What can I do to change?  Here in these simple words lie my foundation for our household and what I want to teach my children.  To be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and doing good to all men...we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things...

Then a young man spoke, building upon those principles.  He spoke on what it was to be chaste - it's not just about being morally clean, it's about making our thoughts and actions pure as well. 

This made me think.  How do I speak?  Are my thoughts pure and clean?  What do I allow myself to watch and listen to?  Am I honest and benevolent?

Needless to say, I was grateful for those two young people and their insight and the opportunity I had to listen and be touched by their words.