Hold the Scold

Don’t make the same mistake we did:

It was the Gila Valley Temple Open house, and we had two younger boys along. The older one was 9 years old, and we let him and the older ones go at their own pace. The younger was only 5, and we told him he had to stay with us. Well, he fought that directive the whole entire time, as we kept scolding and trying to insist he stay within reach. He was frustrated, so was pulling away the whole entire tour. He constantly tried to go ahead of us and break away from our control.

Turns out, he entirely missed the experience! While this rare occasion was an especially choice experience for our nine-year-old son, who felt the Spirit strongly in that holy place, recorded the experience in his journal, and gave a talk about it. Whenever he remembers those special feelings of feeling God’s Spirit and peace, he will likely always connect choice feelings with that temple—and with all temples. On the other hand, our five-year-old son totally missed the awesome experience and the choice feelings. I wish we had allowed more freedom and had whispered the special things we saw and felt. We had to look for other occasions to provide him a moving experience.

We must help our kids connect happy feelings with happy things. When it is a special event, such as family trips or activities, going to church, going to Grandparents, etc. we need to cut back on the scoldings and increase the positive vibes and remarks, so that he or she will associate good feelings with special times.