Teaching Moment

Jason and I had an opportunity for a memorable parenting moment Saturday night with Brennen.  When he goes to a friends house to play the rule has always been that if that friend can't play or they decide to go somewhere else like ride bikes or to another friends house then he has to call or come home and check-in.  He usually does this but once in a while when we call over to the house he is supposed to be at we find out he isn't there then we end up calling around to other friends house to find him.  He hasn't done this for a while but we had an "incident" Saturday night that ended up being a good opportunity for us to teach him a lesson he will hopefully not forget.

We had a wedding reception to go to at 5:00 pm. at a ward members house a few streets away from our house.  At 4:00 pm Brennen asked me if he could go play with Kyler (cousin across the street).  I said yes but to be home at 5:00 so we could go to the reception.  He had his ipod with him so he would know what time it is.  At about 5:00 pm I texted my sister to have her send Brennen home.  She text me back that she wasn't home so he never came over.  Jason and I waited until about 5:15 pm for him to come home then Jason decided that we should lock all the doors and just head over to the reception.  I wasn't too sure about this idea but Jason said he knew Brennen was ok and it would be a good lesson for him.  I was really nervous but went along with his idea.

We walked to the reception and went past the church on the way because we thought Brennen may have met up with a different friend and was skateboarding at the church.  He was not there so we went on to the reception.  It was almost 6:00 pm when Brennen showed up at the reception.  He came in the backyard and found us and was very relieved to see us.  I was VERY relieved to see him! 

When we got home we had a talk with him and asked him what happened.  He told us that he went to a different friends house when he found out Kyler wasn't home and forgot to tell us then he came home at 5:30 on knowing he was supposed to be home at 5:00 pm.  He said he set a timer on his ipod to remind him to come home but forgot to start it.  Anyway...he said he got home and we weren't there and the doors were locked and he was very scared.  He went to the neighbors house to try to get a wifi signal on his ipod so he could send me a message but it didn't work.  He said he was really freaked out and didn't know what to do and he could not get into the house since we had locked him out.  He said that he thought he should say a prayer so he did and after he instantly felt better afterward then he remembered talking to one of his friends earlier that day and that they had said the reception was at the Manser's house.  So he knew that was where we were, so he got on his bike and went to the Manser's house where he found us.  We asked him how he felt when he got home and we weren't' there and he told us that he was really freaked out not knowing where we were.  We told him that that is how we feel when we don't know where he is only times that feeling by 100.  He got this "I get it" look on his face and said he was really sorry.   Hopefully he will remember this a lot more so than getting grounded for a few days which is what would normally happened when he was late or didn't check-in.  It was a hard parenting moment for us but I'm glad we did it.  It is very difficult giving him a little bit more leash as he gets older. 

Brennen had to give a talk in primary the next day about prayer.  This was his talk, he wrote it by himself without any help.

Once Enos was in the woods hunting for game. in Enos1:4 it  says "And my soul  hungered: and I kneeled down before my Maker  and I cried unto him in a mighty prayer and supplication  for mine own soul; and all the daylong did I  cry unto him; yea, and when  the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens."  

The other day I had an experience with prayer  I was just coming home after finding out it had been over an hour like I had said I would be home at that direct time. I was supposed to be home at five but I arrived late. I arrived at five thirty. When I arrived and found my parents were not home I panicked.  I finally  went to my neighbors house and found I could not pick up any cell service. So I went  home then I said a prayer. the second I said amen I felt better, and the holy ghost said that my parents were at sister  Manser's house. At that point I knew that my parents were at her house.  Then I went to their house and discovered that there was a party for a wedding there I saw my parents and from then on I know that truly that there is a God but only one God and he loves us all and answers our prayers.