Week 2: Freedom to Appreciate the Uniqueness that is You; Personal Project for the month

I have felt prompted to focus on two areas that will allow us to be more free in our own lives:

-freedom from slavery to appetite

-freedom of forgiving others

Our official way of putting it: Freedom to appreciate the uniquenss that is YOU!

This week, I feel prompted that one way to free us from our slavery to appetite is not only to appreciate our bodies so that we will want to care for them in how we eat, but to be aware of other appetites, like pornography, what it is and how to avoid it.

Here are some of our daily devotional topics I feel we should cover:

-Your body: "Helping Children Appreciate Their Bodies" ---June 2015 Ensign
"How to Treat Little Children"

Develop Close, Loving Relationships with Children

President George Albert Smith once explained that “our children are the most precious gift that our Father bestows upon us. If we can guide their feet in the pathway of salvation, there will be joy eternal for us and for them” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1915, p. 95).

To guide their feet properly, we must show natural affection to children from the very beginning. Infants need to be physically and emotionally cared for. They need continual intimate contact with their parents. It is in this intimate closeness that their future relationships begin to develop.

To develop close, loving relationships with infants, keep them clean and fed, and meet all of their needs kindly and consistently. From this steady, predictable care, infants develop a sense of emotional security and learn that they can trust other people. Constantly give approval to them. Watch, applaud, hug, and kiss them when they lift their heads, turn over, crawl, sit up, or stand.

Be kind and patient as infants learn to do things for themselves. Harsh correction could diminish their self-esteem and make them anxious about trusting others. For instance, if a little girl tries to feed herself and constantly spills her food and her father habitually becomes angry, she may come to believe that she is bad because she spills. She may also learn to fear men. Her father’s challenge is to find a clean spot on which to kiss her and to encourage her to keep trying day after day until at her own pace she develops the needed skill. If she throws down the food in anger, her father should simply ignore her anger and temporarily remove the food from her reach. Patient, kind acceptance of young children’s efforts to learn will help them have good feelings about themselves and feel confident in loving their parents.

Through all stages of growth, children need parental encouragement. Punishment for failure will make them feel inferior and unwilling to develop close relationships. Pressure to progress faster than they are ready can create emotional frustration, for no matter how much they are forced, they cannot do more than their young motor skills and immature coordination will allow. A baby must learn by trial and error how to maneuver the spoon from bowl to mouth. Food will spill until the time when, after much practice, his brain gains control and coordinates his eye, arm, and mouth muscles.

How profoundly the Prophet Joseph Smith spoke when he expressed the yearnings of the human heart: “When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what power it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind” (History of the Church, 5:24).

Be loving when you correct your children. Do not withhold affection from them as a way to chastise them, for they may not learn to give affection to others. Physical or emotional abuse may teach a child that cruelty is the normal way to treat other people. Do not spank a child in this age-group with any force and never with an instrument. Also, avoid making a child fearful by locking him in a dark room or threatening to leave him alone. One couple sent their bright, energetic, and occasionally mischievous three-year-old out of the room when she became disobedient, but they never shut the door. The child was not cut off from the security of the voices, sounds, or lights in the rest of the house. When she regained control of herself, she wandered back to a warm welcome.

(Thank goodness there is the Atonement so I can start today to be better!!)

-Recognizing and Avoiding Pornography:

Music: https://www.lds.org/new-era/2007/08/if-the-savior-stood-beside-me?lang=eng

Courage of Joseph to run from Potiphor's wife: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/gen/39.7-12

https://www.overcomingpornography.org/spouses-and-families/what-do-i-do?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/friend/2012/08/leaving-bad-behind?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/to-look-upon?lang=eng

- Sexuality: because at it states in the June 2015 Ensign:"Topics of sexuality and body image are related to and affect each other."(using "A Parent's Guide: a guidebook to help parents hold age-appropriate conversations with their children about intimacy and sexual development)

-Self-worth

-"Our body is a temple"--go to the temple.  How are we like the temple?

WEEK #2 GEO-CONQUEST: Geography and Culture

Mom-led:

Early Chinese rulers, wars and culture

Intro to Maps of Asia and points of interest

Buddhism and Confuscianism

Yin-Yang

Read Chinese myths

Kid projects:

Asian/Chinese culture and food

Art or Prezis

Map studies: know countries and major geographical features and cities of Asia

Simulations

Update time-line

Crust skills: Time line, writing, map studies, cooking

Things I am going to do this week:

-math games daily with kids

-more nature time!

-incorporate songs into devotional and meal times: "To Build an Ark," "If the Savior Stood Beside Me."

-Watch this podcast about storms and Japan

-make a prezi about "Eastern" Asia (I did "Western Asia" last week)

-encourage Hyrum and Hava to make a prezi about storms to go along with the article and all the storms that are occurring around the world

-Chinese art class on Thursday with a friend

-Read "House of 60 Fathers" to kids and start "Heavenly Man" for myself

PERSONAL PROJECTS FOR MONTH:

-Work on forgiving others

-Seek help and start overcoming my addiction to food as a source of comfort

-Strive to be a better example of a joyful wife to my children:

In two-parent families, the child needs acceptance by both parents to begin to establish gender security. In homes where the mother feels good about her role as afamily builder, she will make the child feel well accepted. The mother and child are constant companions. Mother is a coach and tutor, involved in the numberless trials, errors, and successes of this developmental period. The father, on the other hand, comes home from his employment and tends to interrupt the routine. Often he interrupts with play, sometimes with duties, and on occasion with discipline. If he is a mature parent, he brings home with him encouragement and approval for what the mother and children have done that day; if immature, he brings tension.

Elder Harold B. Lee emphasized the importance of the mother and the need to help her be with her children:
“Keep the mother of your home at the ‘cross roads’ of the home. There is a great danger today of homes breaking down because of allurements to entice mothers to neglect their being at home as the family are coming or going from the home. Now I recognize the necessity of some mothers being required to earn sustenance for their family. I am recognizing that, but [we all] should take care lest [we] fail to lend all aid possible to permit the mother of small children to be with them, if possible, in planning the nature of work or the schedule of time” (“Woman’s Glorious Purpose,”Relief Society Magazine, Jan. 1968, pp. 12–13).

It is in this early stage of life, as the roles of male and female are acquired, that the foundation of sexual health is laid or sexual distress begins. By age three most children should have firmly accepted their identity as male or female. When family unhappiness has led them to feel unaccepted, they may become confused about their self-esteem and their gender role. Loving, consistent parenting helps children accept themselves and their gender identity during these three years. Unkind parenting can plant seeds of self-doubt and even confusion about the gender role. These seeds can germinate into personal problems in the following years unless parents change and show increased affection and acceptance. 

I saw an example of this last week sitting behind a family where the wife is meek and submissive to her husband.  They love each other.  He is a good father, provider and protector.  He is confident in that role.  She is sweet and loving.  The children submit to the quick verbal rebuke of their father and feel safe. I am sure they have seen their mother supportive of him and submissive to his counsel.  While this may run counter at the surface to feminine strength movements, there is beauty in the peace and harmony of this family.  The wife is radiant and confident, yet knows she can rely upon her husband.  The husband is secure in his wife's love and support.  It reflects a state of heart that I desire to have.

I know these are God inspired goals. I know that I will not have conquered them by month's end (they may take a life-time or into eternity, but I will have the courage to identify these areas in my life and that I can improve today.  With God's grace, I have asked the question: please help me with these specific things" and I know He will answer now that I am ready to listen and truly identify what those answers are.  

Sometimes, you have to ask the right question to get the answers.