I am so excited to be a parent someday!!! All my brothers and sisters in laws are having babies and my oldest sister just had a baby. I am so excited about being a dad....but also so scared. It is one of those things that I think is just like any other big step in your life. I was so scared and excited to get: married, the priesthood, move out on my own, baptized, drive.......pretty much any big event. Once I get into it you just learn as you go. I honestly think that marriage for a bit is the best preparation to be a parent. I probably need to explain a bit more. My wife and I have been married for 3 years in November. Since we have been married I have learned so much about serving someone else (trust me I still have years and years to go). I have learned patience, compassion, love, teamwork and putting someone else's needs before my own. There is so many other things I have learned also. So for me, once I got married I learned all of these great qualities. I had some of them already and others I had to learn but I have them a little now. I think a lot of the qualities I have learned since I have gotten married will help me a ton in parenting. I also have taken some parenting classes. Its funny though. I learned all of this stuff in my parenting classes and then when I was around my nieces and nephews that "knowledge" quickly wore off. I came to the conclusion it doesn't matter what you know, its how you use it. Knowledge will help you in the moment to deal with a situation but it won't make you choose the right.
I really wanted to focus on thoughts of the prophets so I will finish with quotes from leaders of the church. To go along with what I just said on knowledge President Ezra Taft Benson said:
"Usually the Lord gives us the overall objectives to be accomplished and some guidelines to follow, but he expects us to work out most of the details and methods. The methods and procedures are usually developed through study and prayer and by living so that we can obtain and follow the promptings of the Spirit."
"Child rearing is so individualistic. Every child is different and unique."
President Brigham Young said:
"Parents should never drive their children, but lead them along, giving them knowledge as their minds are prepared to receive it. Chastening may be necessary betimes, but parents should govern their children by faith rather than by the rod, leading them kindly by good example into all truth and holiness."
"I have never accepted the principle of 'spare the rod and spoil the child'....Children don't need beating. They need love and encouragement."President Gordon B. Hinckley:
"That’s right. I don’t believe that children need to be beaten, or anything of that kind. Children can be disciplined with love. They can be counseled—if parents would take the time to sit down quietly and talk with them. Tell them the consequences of misbehaving, of not doing things in the right way. The children would be better off, and I think everyone would be happier.
My father never touched us. He had a wisdom all his own of quietly talking with us. He turned us around when we were moving in the wrong direction, without beating us or taking a strap to us or any of that kind of business.I’ve never been a believer in the physical punishment of children. I don’t think it is necessary."When I become a parent it will be so hard. But I think if I am trying to be the best person I can be I will be able to discern right from wrong. That is what this life is about. Discernment of right and wrong. I won't always be right.....probably will rarely be right. But I hope to learn from my mistakes and be a good dad.
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