During the Priesthood leadership session of our Katy Stake Conference in August, President David Sosa gave a wonderful talk. Below you will find some inspired ideas for fathers that he mentioned.
I think they are helpful for all of us as we work to strengthen our families and lead our children in the gospel.
How Fathers Can Provide Spiritual Leadership to Their Children
1. Use our priesthood to bless our children. Look for opportunities to share our priesthood with them. Give them father’s blessings. Baptize and confirm them. Ordain our sons to the priesthood. These will become spiritual highlights in their lives. This will also help them gain a testimony and appreciation of the priesthood we hold.
2. Personally direct family prayers, daily scripture reading, and weekly family home evenings. It is our responsibility as a priesthood holder and a father to make sure these important activities take place in our homes. Our personal involvement will teach our children how important these activities really are.
3. Whenever possible, attend church meetings together as a family. Family worship under our leadership is vital to our children’s spiritual welfare.
4. Spend time with our children. Go on dad/daughter dates and on father/son outings. As family, go on campouts/picnics, to ball games, recitals, school programs and so forth. Having dad there and being emotionally present makes all the difference.
5. Build traditions of family vacations, trips, and outings. These memories will never be forgotten by our children.
6. Have regular one on one visits with our children. Let them talk about what they want to discuss. Teach them true values. Teach them gospel principles. Tell them we love them. Personal time with our children will show them what dad considers to be important.
7. Teach our children to work. Show them the value of working towards a worthy goal. Establish mission funds and education funds for your children. This will teach them what you consider to be important.
8. Encourage good music, art, and literature in our homes. . Homes that have a spirit of refinement and beauty will bless the lives of our children forever.
9. Attend the temple regularly with your wife. This will set a powerful example for our children. Our children will then better understand the importance of temple marriage and temple vows and the eternal family unit.
10. Have our children see our joy and satisfaction in service to the Church. This will help them want to also serve in the church.
Month: September 2014
Meet the Mormons
Last month we received a powerful message from Elder David A. Bednar imploring us to “sweep the earth” with authentic and uplifting messages through social media.
“I exhort you to sweep the earth with messages filled with righteousness and truth—messages that are authentic, edifying, and praiseworthy—and literally to sweep the earth as with a flood.”
—Elder David A. Bednar
He also announced the October 10th release of the documentary feature produced by the church“Meet the Mormons.” As he said, “This movie is one additional way members can share their beliefs with family and friends in a simple and effective way.”
October is quickly approaching and I wanted to share some information from the church about the movie so that you can use your own social media channels to get the word out to your friends and family members.
The new full-length feature film Meet the Mormons examines the diverse lives of six devout members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Filmed on location across the globe, Meet the Mormons takes viewers on a journey into the day-to-day realities of individuals living in the U.S., Costa Rica, Nepal and beyond. From their individual passions to their daily struggles, each story paints a picture as rich and unique as the next while challenging the stereotypes that surround the Mormon faith.
Meet the Mormons will hit theaters in the U.S. October 10, 2014. It is currently only coming to one theater in our area, but you can go HERE to request for the film to be shown even closer!
Meet the Mormons is a project created by the First Presidency. The primary purpose of this film is to show the diverse collection of people from around the world who make up the Church. We hope their stories will help people understand how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings joy and peace. We also hope viewers will gain a greater understanding of the richness and diversity of our faith.
The film will appear in more than 100 theaters across the United States beginning on October 10th, 2014 and all proceeds from the film will go to The American Red Cross.
When posting information about the movie on our own social media, it is a great opportunity for us to express how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has transformed our lives by bringing us closer to Christ. We can let friends know that not all Mormons are just like you or me, or common Mormon stereotypes. Members of the Church come from many different backgrounds, cultures and experiences.
The official trailer…
I will be posting the trailer again along with a simple message about the film that will be easy to share with others later today on Facebook and encourage everyone to help get the word out about the movie.
Visit http://meetthemormons.com/ for even more information and ideas!
An Amazing Accomplishment
Seth Jensen, a senior in the Katy 3rd ward, just accomplished a feat extremely rare in the scouting program by earning EVERY possible merit badge available!
In the 104-year history of the Boy Scouts of America, about 100 million boys have been involved in the Scouting program and 2.7 million of them became Eagle scouts.
In contrast, there have been only about 250 Boy Scouts that have earned all the merit badges available to them. Seth is now one of those 250.
(see http://www.meritbadgeknot.com/registry.htm for an unofficial list of all those that have earned them all.)
The number of merit badges fluctuates from year to year as some badges are added and others are removed, so the total number of merit badges may be different for each scout. With the 137 merit badges Seth earned, he has been surpassed by only three or four other scouts ever which is truly remarkable.
Seth began the scouting program when he was eleven years old. At that time his dad got him a requirement board and talked about the steps he would need to take in order to be an Eagle Scout. He asked his dad how many merit badges he could get and when his dad told him as many as he wanted, Seth decided that he wanted to earn them all!
Over the next seven years he worked extremely hard to earn his badges. His favorite badge to earn was his scuba badge. Seth was able to go scuba diving with his mom and older brother and said it was incredibly beautiful. One of the badges he is most proud of earning is his bugling badge because he had no idea how to play the instrument at all when he first began working on it. Seth’s father played a big role in his success in accomplishing his goal. With his help Seth was able to attend some merit badge fairs for the badges that were going to be harder to earn.
Not only has working so hard to earn these merit badges fulfilled his long-time goal and helped him become a better person, but it has helped Seth figure out what he wants to do later in life. Through earning the badges he has realized that he loves both medicine and computers and hopes to incorporate those into what he does professionally in his life.
What an outstanding example Seth is to his peers and fellow scouts. We congratulate him on his hard work and dedication in fulfilling this achievement.
Friends of Katy Texas Stake 