Elder Hales addresses a question we should all ask ourselves.  What is my duty to God in relation to the youth?

Example is the single best teaching method known to mankind.  If you aren’t a positive example, then you are a negative example.  Even when you say the right thing, your example shows through with your actions.  The world, lead by a warring enemy, is full of bad examples, or even acceptable examples that can still take you off course.  The Lord has shown us the Way.

I remember sitting in a Relief Society class where we were discussing Agency.  Someone mentioned the huge gray area in which we live and the entire class jumped in saying, Yea, Yea!  They all agreed  the gray area made choosing hard because there were so many good choices.  It was all I could do to hold myself on my seat!  Sisters—there is NO gray area!!  Please understand this!!!  The gray area is the mist of darkness that obscures your path.  Our duty as parents is to teach our children we live in a black and white world:  Good and Evil, Virtue and Vice, Love and Anger, One, or the other.  There are only two masters and our actions prove who we choose.

The world will pull our children out of our enveloping arms, if we don’t fulfill our duty.  Elder Hales tells us to capitalize on teaching moments.  You just never know when those can come up, but you can bet they won’t happen if you’re gone from the home, or tired and screaming, or you haven’t hugged your son recently, or told your daughter you loved her.  Keep the relationship with your children strong, so you will see, and be ready, for those teaching moments.

One of Satan’s best tricks is to show a false, but very convincing, interest in people.  All people want to feel loved, valued, listened to, and appreciated.  Satan can be very good at appearing that way, at first.  Parents need to show love unfeigned, and unconditionally.  They need to put their children’s interests above their own.

My daughter has been trying to put together a Joy School.  It’s been a few years since the last group was functioning, as the children grew up.  In those off years, some parents have chosen to put their children in a preschool, which meets more regularly and for longer hours.  The moms are relishing their freedom and don’t want to go “backwards” with a time consuming neighborhood school anymore.  Is this the path we want to take as mothers?  Anxiously passing our children off for others to teach and influence at so early an age?  On the other hand, can it hurt to help our children socialize?  It’s hard work being a mother and every mother deserves some time off, right?

Mothers, commit yourselves to the long-haul.  Be the teacher, the influence, and the guide to your children for as long as you possibly can.  The world lies in wait for your children.  Don’t give them up too early, because as sure as I’m breathing, you will not see the consequences until it is too late.  And even then, you will find it difficult to admit where things went wrong.

In his talk, Elder Hales reminds us of the families of King Benjamin’s day.  All those parents who set their tents toward the temple and heard the words of their great king and prophet apparently did not teach those golden words to their children, because “they did not believe…and their hearts were hardened”.  (Mosiah 26:1,3)  “To truly choose the Lord’s way, they must know His way.  And to truly know His way, we must teach and lead them to act, to participate; to do.”  Elder Hales makes things look pretty black and white for us.

Elder Hales tells us to create opportunities to look into our children’s eyes and tell them that we love them and that Heavenly Father loves them.  We can remind them who they are and how fortunate they are to have come to earth, to our home, to have knowledge of the gospel, and to participate in the covenants of the temple, and to be a family forever.

“The greatest missionary work we will ever do will be in our homes.  Our children and grandchildren are our investigators. The greatest family history work that we will do will be within our own homes.  We must preserve our generations.  The greatest rescue, the greatest activation will be in our homes.  Extend an invitation to come home to our children.  The greatest faith we have will be within our homes as we remain strong in the trials and tribulations of parenthood.”

In closing, Elder Hales quotes Joseph Smith.  “There is much which lieth in futurity.”  All we do for our children is for their future.  We must stay by them for ALL of the years we have them.  Heavenly Father is with us long term, for he sees the eternities where He longs to welcome us with loving arms opened wide.