Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Most Important Work

I had a rough day. My poor boy is sick with this awful cough and fever, so we literally spent all day in my bed. Cuddling is nice, but getting coughed on for how ever many hours straight is kind of brutal. He was watching his shows, and I was keeping myself occupied on my phone. Facebook. Twitter. More Facebook. Instagram. Twitter again.

There was post after post about the tragic loss of an actor who was found dead with a needle in his arm. How many times does this has to happen before the general public realizes that Hollywood is not full of heros to be idolized? Hollywood is full of egocentric celebrities who believe they are above the law. Their reality is not a legitimate one. Yet somehow that unrealistic reality is something we should envy and aspire to? Yeah right. All I'm seeing in Hollywood is a drug infested society of unhappy people because they think money is the cure all answer. They spend more because they think it'll make them happier. But guess what? It doesn't. So they find new things to spend their money on, until they finally turn to drugs. Hollywood is NOT full of people to look up to. It is full of people who need help. They need to know that they are nothing in comparison to the God who gave them life.

I also saw a post by a humor page targeting my Church, misinterpreting a doctrine and exploiting it to their 1.2 million followers. I will never understand why my Church seems to be the only one it's okay to make fun of. I don't expect people to believe the same things as me, but I do expect people to be good and kind and the only reason I believe people become otherwise is because they were simply taught not to be good and kind.

I know I'm supposed to be strong and not let stuff like this get to me, but I have a son who has to grow up surrounded by this. Everything he has to go through will be so much worse than what I ever had to deal with. He's going to be targeted as he grows up and tells people he's Mormon. I want him to grow up and feel the good that comes from the Church. I want to set a good example for him so he can see why our religion is important. I want so bad for him to recognize that all good things are of God, and I want that realization to blossom into a testimony of Christ. I want him to use that testimony to stand up to those people who are going to try to bully him. I want my son to have confidence in who he is and what he stands for.

If every single person in this world had the privilege to grow up in a home with GOOD AND KIND parents who love each other no matter what, every single problem in the world would cease to exist. If every child knew they were loved, they wouldn't be seeking to find it from places that will only end up hurting them, and they wouldn't be seeking to hurt others either. There wouldn't be celebrities who think they only need themselves, their entourage, their money and their drugs to be happy. There wouldn't be so many children born to celebrity parents who break up at the first sign of trouble. Those poor babies don't get to grow up in the home they deserve. They never get to know what it's like to be raised in a home with a mommy and daddy who love each other. Instead, they get a nanny who excuses the parents of all parental responsibility. Those innocent little children should be taught love over luxury. If only every child got to grow up in a home with loving parents...

President Harold B. Lee shared one of the most important truths when he said this.

"The most important of the Lord's work you will ever do will be the work you do within the walls of your own home."

I want everyone who has a child to know how special that child is and how important the responsibility of a parent is. Being a good parent is the only way to make a significant difference in this world. When you become a parent, you give up the right to be selfish because your responsibility to raise a good child is more important. The best thing anyone can possibly to do raise a child who won't add to any of the problems in the world is to show them how much you love them every single day.