The Shaping of Today Makes the Woman of Tomorrow

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -C.S. Lewis

Like the great canyons of the earth that are shaped by exposure to weather and water, i feel children are shaped by what they are exposed to. As parents we act as protectors to our children. We monitor who and what they are around, and thus we have a great influence upon what kind of person they can become. I recognize and appreciate that our Heavenly Father blessed His children with the gift of agency, the opportunity to choose what we will and will not do, but I also see that I must teach my daughter to recognize right from wrong. In the future I will have a great deal less control over what my child is around, and therefore, I must use every minute I can now helping her know truth so she can keep herself happy and safe. President Spencer W. Kimball said "The secret of the good life is in protection and prevention. Those who yield to evil are usually those who have placed themselves in a vulnerable position." As I look back upon my own life I find this to be very true; the majority of my most miserable memories are situations that I put myself into. This is why I am so intent upon teaching my daughter that she has the power "to act for [herself] and not to be acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:26). 

Right now I see the greatest tools I have to accomplish this are scripture study and prayer. Daily we read scriptures and pray as a family and individually. That includes my daughter. She has personal prayer and scripture time each day. While she cannot read or talk yet I help her. I recognize that I cannot always be with her, but she will always have the power of prayer and her knowledge from the scriptures. Bishop Dean M. Davies taught, "Searching, pondering, and applying the words of Christ as taught in the scriptures will bring wisdom and knowledge beyond our mortal understanding. This will strengthen our commitment and provide the spiritual reserves to do our best in all situations." I want my daughter to always make the best choices she can and so I am choosing now to help her learn to use tools she will need to be a woman of virtue, a woman that she can be proud of. 

I know that it may seem odd to be so seriously concerned about my daughter's spiritual grounding now, but I figure now is the best time to begin. She is still so close to her Heavenly Father, still so innocent and receptive to goodness, I do not want to wait for that to wane to start. Instead I plan to teach her to keep that sweetness and trust in God, and help her learn about the world with a Christlike mentality. I realize that I cannot keep the sadness in the world from her forever, but I can teach her how to react to it. Therefore, I do not have time to be passive about teaching my daughter to love God and choose righteousness. The reactions and perceptions my daughter makes in her youth will influence her entire life.

Margaret D. Nadauld said "The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.” I want true happiness for my daughter, happiness that will last forever, not for a fleeting moment. I know that happiness comes through our Heavenly Father and living the way he would have us live. So I will continue making the time each day to help my daughter grow in study and prayer, that she may always recognize and remember that she is a daughter of God, a woman of value, a woman with the power to act.