Something Worth Imitating
Every evening, after our family scripture study, we all kneel around the ottoman for family prayer. We began the practice of kneeling about a year ago. We found it helps to keep the children more focused and reverent during the prayer.
When they are very young, such as Lenora, I do what I can to help keep her quiet or still, but for the most part she is still given free reign to play quietly in the same room as we read our scriptures. When it comes time for prayer, sometimes I’ll pull her next to me, but I generally release her if she starts to struggle, because I’d rather have a quiet wandering baby than a loud contained one.
One evening recently, as we were transitioning from the couch to the floor, Lenora wandered over right next to the ottoman, leaned on it with her arms folded, bowed her head and began to babble. It was the sweetest thing to watch as she imitated us praying!
Brigham Young once said, “We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do. We should set them an example that we wish them to imitate.”
Sometimes it is easy to forget that as parents we are under constant observation. I can remember a time when my children were younger and I didn’t have nearly as many, being concerned because my daughters had started using a tone of voice I didn’t like. And then one day, I heard myself using that same tone towards them. It was an eye opening realization.
Since then I do my best to make sure I am modeling behaviors worthy of imitation. I don’t subscribe to a “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy. If I want my children to read good books, then I need to be seen reading good books. And when I notice my children have picked up a bad habit from me, I do my best to model the change.
Whether we realize it or not, even the youngest of children is constantly observing our every action and non-action and using it to determine their own course. We have a huge responsibly as parents to shape the lives of the individuals within our homes and a large part of that is insuring we are giving them something worth imitating.
