Called and Chosen Part 2

Last week Tyson was working very hard on his math but was not finishing all of the pages I had assigned to him.  Knowing he had given his all, I said, "Alright Tyson, go ahead and do what  you want.  Why don't you go outside and play."  With an overjoyed face to be free from his math, he ran straight over to the couch and began reading a book about animals!!  I said, "Tyson, I thought you were dying to play.  You can do whatever you want to do right now."  He responded, "I know... I really like reading these books."  I was amazed that he chose to study more even though he was allowed to play!

Today I saw him taking little Juliana and baby Jayden on an "African Safari" through our yard.  I listened for a while, and his "tour" was actually very interesting and very informative.  He LOVES animals!

That was when I noticed the miracle... I believe that children have no problem listening to the Spirit and making the necessary sacrifices to become champions!   There will always be some school subjects that I will have to encourage more than others, but I should trust them to follow what their little spirits are telling them.

At age 7, Jackson began studying our globe.  I had no idea how much he was learning until one day we drove past a place called "Cutters", and he said, "That's a country in the Middle-East!"  He didn't know the spelling of it, but he knew that "Qatar" was kind of pronounced like the hair-cutter place.  Upon further questioning, we discovered that he knew every single country that we asked him- even the obscure ones!!  He could tell us which countries bordered which ones, and he even knew facts about many of the countries with their accompanying flags!

He learned these things because he followed the education that his heart desired.  He studied it even when friends came over to play!  They would be on the trampoline while he sat on the side studying the globe.  Was it a sacrifice to study so hard?  Yes it was!! ...but it did not seem like a difficult sacrifice because he focused on the learning instead of the things he was missing out on.  He LOVES discovering the world... who knows what and who he will become?

As my children grow into themselves, I find their desires interesting and inspiring.  I want to allow my own spirit to learn more as I watch them!  I am determined to allow my children more freedom to safely discover who they are and who they are to become... spiritually, physically, and mentally.

I have no idea for what grand purposes they have been sent here to Earth.  I don't even know all of my own purposes!  It's such an exciting time to live!  I pray that my children will find and accept the path that God intended for them.  What a beautiful life it would be if we could all live the lives that God intended for us.

One of my favorite stories from our late prophet, President Hinkley, is as follows:

"When I was a young man, a mere boy of 11, I received a patriarchal blessing from a man I had never seen before and never saw thereafter. It is a remarkable document, a prophetic document. It is personal, and I will not read extensively from it. However, it contains this statement: 'The nations of the earth shall hear thy voice and be brought to a knowledge of the truth by the wonderful testimony which thou shalt bear.'

When I was released from my mission in England, I took a short trip on the continent. I had borne my testimony in London; I did so in Berlin and again in Paris and later in Washington, D.C. I said to myself that I had borne my testimony in these great capitals of the world and had fulfilled that part of my blessing.

That proved to be a mere scratching of the surface. Since then I have lifted my voice on every continent, in cities large and small, all up and down from north to south and east to west across this broad world—from Cape Town to Stockholm, from Moscow to Tokyo to Montreal, in every great capital of the world. It is all a miracle."