Righteous Max

I was asked to give a talk in church next week about teaching our children. It has been so cool to prepare this talk because I have been so motivated to teach Max. I have not been very good about teaching him lots about the gospel up to this point. We talk about gospel subjects but just kind of once in a while.

We got out our nursery manual this last week though and I have been talking to Max about the pictures in it and he just can't get enough! It is so sweet to hear him talk about the things he has learned, he loves the picture of Jesus' baptism. He will point to the picture and say over and over, "Jesus getting baptized in the water." and "Look Mommy, Jesus praying." He also really loves the picture of the temple. He points to the angel Moroni on the top and says, "Mo-no-no-ny!" The last time Javier and I Went to the temple, we were taking turns with the kids. I dropped Javier off at the temple and then took the kids to lunch. Max was so upset. He kept saying, "I want to go to the temple!!" He has also been telling me about how everyone is a child of God. He will look at the pictures and say, "kid child a God, Other one kid child a God, Max child a God, Mommy child a God." And sometimes, "Tree child a God, House child a God". Also, we had a family home evening lesson about prayer last week. I took it right from the nursery book, it was great! But before that every time we needed to pray Max would whine and cry and run around through the whole thing, but since then, he has been so great! When we sit down to eat he says, "I wanna pray, Mommy." And at bedtime he slides out of bed himself and folds his little arms before I even tell him. It seems like since our lesson he understands better what we are saying in the prayers too and he'll give ideas for what to say in his prayers. The other night I asked him what he wanted to thank Heavenly Father for and he said, "Jesus"

In the last conference Elder Anderson said this, "Our challenge as parents and teachers is not to create a spiritual core in their souls but rather to fan the flame of their spiritual core already aglow with the fire of their premortal faith...The stories of Jesus can be like a rushing wind across the embers of faith in the hearts of our children. "

Wow, have I found that to be true over these last few weeks! I know that Max isn't all the sudden interested in learning about Jesus because of anything I have done. It is really like he just couldn't wait for me to start talking to him about his favorite thing. I feel so humbled, but excited for the chance we are having to learn together.