Life lessons

For over a year now in Primary we have been encouraging the kids to learn the articles of faith. We used a system of positive reinforcement (aka bribery), where when they passed of the AofF twice they received a piece of candy and when they had passed off all 13 they were official members of Club 13. We then scheduled a members only party and invited only those who joined the club.

It turned out to be a very interesting experience. We had 10 members when all was said and done. They ranged from one very bright 3 year old who can say them but likely doesn't understand what they mean, to several 11 year old boys. Those boys were more interested in beating everyone to get their names up on the board than attending another Primary activity, but oh well. The activity went well and the kids--except Lucas-- all seemed to have fun. But it got me thinking about why some where there and others weren't, especially within families. Why did I have a 9 year old there but not her almost 12 year old sister? The older sister was pretty upset to see her sibling go off to the party, but hadn't been willing to make the effort to be there. I was really proud of the parents who did not even try to get her invited but used the experience to teach her.

We spend alot of time reminding our boys that they have to do the work to get the reward and that every choice has consequences. Landon does not get to go to a soccer game today because he is missing work. He has a consequence for choosing not to do something good the same as a choice to do something bad. Decisions large and small all carry consequences. Its hard to know how things will play out sometimes. I have always felt I made the wrong choice after I finished at Ricks by going back to Monmouth. I didn't do what I knew I should out of fear and nothing about my time at Western went well. However I doubt I would have ended up in Vancouver to meet Todd if I had not been so miserable in Monmouth. So I guess the lesson is that we have to live with whatever choices we make and sometimes they turn out great and other times we are crying because we don't get to go to the party.