Hard things

Tonight for family home evening we talked about doing hard things and making sacrifices.

Natalie has been wanting to give up on a lot of things as soon as they get hard, and we are trying to figure out a way that we can help her fight through. 

A few weeks ago she got moved up into the intermediate gymnastics class from the beginners gymnastics class. Today was her first day in the class and she came home with her hips a little bit bruised up.  She told me that she wanted to quit and that she didn't want to try hard. I try to talk to her about things that are hard like reading or math or cleaning but we don't give up on those. She insisted that she wanted to give up on all of those things too.

So we had the kids tell us things that we sacrifice for like typing or fasting for our time and Natalie made the connection about gymnastics. I don't want to frustrate her more, I just want her to excel and learned that hard work brings good things.

I am learning that as my children grow and go through different phases in their lives I am faced with many more challenges as a mother and parents. It makes me want to read a new book with each challenge. It is so hard to know what to do and each child is so individual in the way that we treat them. 

I am looking for the key to making my children realize that they are good enough and important and special and that they can do anything that they set their mind too. Even if that means that it takes a long time to get there and a lot of hard work. 

It is also hard to teach this two children when I as a 30-year-old struggle with it every day.  I guess the next principle that I need to teach my children is that they can rely upon the Lord for help when things get hard. No matter how silly or small we think our problem is the Lord wants to hear and wants to help. Okay, I just figured out our next family home evening lesson.