The Blessing of Children

I read a great article the other day about how dad’s treat their kids and it hit home –  I need to be nicer to my kids, especially Caleb.

So with that thought in mind, I decided to read the article today titled “Children” by Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Twelve.

“If you are concerned about providing financially for a wife and family, may I assure you that there is no shame in a couple having to scrimp and save. It is generally during these challenging times that you will grow closer together as you learn to sacrifice and to make difficult decisions.”¹⁰

To summarize, the article talks a lot about the importance of having children, and more importantly, of having faith that all things will work together for our good if we are striving to do what is right.

I think this is one stress I’ve had lately – being worried that I can provide for my family.

I’ve loved working for myself and all the opportunities it brings; however, it’s just like my sales job – every day, every week, every month is a new one and there are no guarantees: I have to bust it out and always be looking for new opportunities to succeed.

It’s been nice to have the partnerships with DS and FS and how much they’ve been my “brothers on the isles of the sea“. I still can’t believe that experience I had at the temple and how much it’s actually come to pass almost word for word.

I decided to look up the word “persistence” on LDS.org and found a lesson from the teaching of Heber J. Grant titled “Persistence“.

Persistence in the pursuit of righteous desires can help us develop talents, attain our spiritual goals, and serve others.

President Heber J. Grant often quoted the following statement, which is sometimes attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do—not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”⁶

We can accomplish any worthwhile goal if we are persistent.

I believe that we can accomplish any object that we make up our minds to, and no boy or girl ought to sit down and say, because they cannot do as well as somebody else, that they will not do anything. God has given to some people ten talents; to others, he has given one; but they who improve the one talent will live to see the day when they will far outshine those who have ten talents but fail to improve them.⁷

Trustworthiness, stick-to-it-iveness, and determination are the qualities that will help you to win the battle of life.⁸

It is by exercise and by practice that we become proficient in any of the vocations or avocations of life, whether it be of a religious or of a secular character.¹⁰

I know of no easy formula to success. Persist, persist, PERSIST; work, work, WORK—is what counts in the battle of life.¹¹

The following quote is one I need to always remember:

I feel that we should learn never to become discouraged. … I believe when we determine within our hearts that by and with the blessings of God our Heavenly Father we will accomplish a certain labor, God gives the ability to accomplish that labor; but when we lay down, when we become discouraged, when we look at the top of the mountain and say it is impossible to climb to the summit, while we never make an effort it will never be accomplished.

“As the Lord lives and as we live we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished that which the Lord has commanded us.” [1 Nephi 3:15.]

One of the big things that [the adversary] has to work on is the fact that we are all poor, weak mortals and fully appreciate our own weakness, and he tries to take advantage of our knowledge on this point to inspire us with the idea that we are no good and what we are doing is not worth the time that we are taking to do it. But we can be assured that if we press on in the little duties which are from day to day resting on us, we will be on hand for greater ones, when, in the kind providences of the Lord, there will come to us greater work to do in the interests of his work.¹⁸

Why is persistent effort essential in living a righteous and eternally successful life? (See also 1 Nephi 13:37; 3 Nephi 27:16; D&C 14:7.)

This question reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures in 2 Nephi:

19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow ^apath, I would ask if all is ^bdone? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken ^cfaith in him, ^drelying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to ^esave.

20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life.

I’m grateful that I’ve been blessed with a persistent mindset. I’m grateful that I will never give up or quit.

I just pray that I can put off the natural man and not let my own weaknesses impede me from reaching my full potential, both in this life and forever.

I know that “enduring to the end” is another way to say “be persistent”. I know that Christ was persistent, that all the prophets and apostles of the New and Old Testament and Book of Mormon had to have persistence to succeed and fulfill their missions, and I know that if I am persistent and turn my will to God, He will bless me and prosper me.

Hasta manana!

Nate