Moving is...

We are still unpacking. I really used to enjoy moving, but I'm officially retracting that statement. Adam reminded me that we haven't really moved during this period where we added three kids to the mix, so no wonder this is a shock. I was looking through some boxes yesterday and found an essay I'd written in college about parenting and discipline. I didn't have time to read it all, but I flipped through enough to catch a few quotes about this importance of praise. Gram set a good example by reminding me to praise Kaia for taking a good nap a Gram's house (she hasn't napped for me in about a week).

A while ago I heard a talk in church where a guy said he'd lost his keys while fishing. As the sun began to set, he said a prayer wherein he promised God if He would help him find his keys he would commit to read his scriptures every day. Moments later he saw a glimmer in the weeds and there were his keys. Yesterday Adam asked me to go out to the mail box to see if a packet of very important checks had arrived. They had and I carried them into the back yard where I was helping kids put away their bikes. I didn't think of the checks again until later that evening when it began to rain. I frantically started searching around, racking my brain trying to remember where I put those checks. Hours later I was getting desperate and knelt down to pray (not the first prayer, but the most sincere one in the effort to find these checks). It came into my mind that I should commit to follow President Hinckley's council to mothers in return for help finding the lost checks. This is the quote that came into my mind: "You mothers, are you the kind to scream at your children, shout with shrill voices? Please don’t. Be quiet in your talk. Soft words. ‘A soft answer taketh away wrath’ (Prov. 15:1). It does. Bless your children with the love that you carry in your hearts. ‘All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children,’ said Isaiah (Isa. 54:13). How true it is. Be teachers to your children” (meeting, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, 5 Aug. 1998)." Moments after I promised the Lord I would follow this council I found the checks deep in Kaia's secret hiding place in the closet. I know it was the hand of God who inspired me to changes I need to make in my parenting and He will give me the strength to do so.