bridget short

After having my first child 1 year ago tomorrow! Happy Birthday Tristan! My husband and I were both concerned on how we would teach our child to have RESPECT!

So many of the youth, the people today do not have respect for anything. We do not want to raise a child who disrespects elders, won’t listen to teachers, and thinks he is above the law. Naw, we want our child to have the Respect of others, and the only way he will have that is to give it! Which means somehow we have to teach it to him.

Well today I recieved some keen insight on just how to do that, and where I already am messing up!

I was listening to Margaret S. Lifferth today in a session of general conference. (she is the 7th frame) and she was talking about having Respect for others. You can listen to it here:  Sister Lifferth’s Talk

She mentioned using titles and such, but what stuck out to me the most was Respect for Property. Now I don’t go about vandalizing, but It really got me thinking…

So many of us want more out of life. More cars, more clothes, more friends, more whatever. But what if there is a direct correlation between how much you obtain in this life and how well you take care of that which you do have!

Yes I am talking gratitude, but I am also talking about the simple, benign, and mundane like CHORES! Yep yucky, hate to do them chores. Oh how I hate them!

Oh I love to work! Ask me over to help paint your house or redo your roof and I will surly be there sweating along side you. But ask me to get up everyday and repeat the same task only to have to do it again tomorrow…And now with a little toddler I need to mop twice a day!! Not for me I will tell you. In fact I often tell my husband those very words.

But I realized today, that perhaps, my lack of dicipline in maintaining a clean house may have a larger effect than I think. Of course I feel more at peace when I get ambitious and clean everything! But what if there is more to it.

What if being a good, dare I say, homemaker! Has an impact on how respectful my children grow to be, what if it has an effect on how successful I am in work, what if that benign and irritating task is really an opportunity for me to grow and develop characteristics that will better this planet?

Just a thought!

I really do believe that which we obtain materially is directly related to how well we care for and cultivate what we already have. This applies to much more than housework! So much more…but some examples.

Some good friends of mine are Millionaires and when I go to their house, naturally they have a lot of goods, but everything is in its place. Tidy and well kept. Like everything is of value! That is typical, and typically overlooked with the, “they must have a maid.”

But what about before they could afford all that? My husband has taken great care of his Z28 Camero ever since he got it.  It still runs and looks amazing, but when he wanted a new car his life put him in a position to have whatever he wanted. Coincidence? Maybe not.

You reap what you sow.

Farmers who fastidiously maintain their crops generally have the most delicious fruit and bring in the most profit.

The friendships that you take the time to care for, and maintain are always the ones you can draw upon in hard times. I have noticed the more I tend to my relationships with others, the more even more people want to have a relationship with me!

I shall conlcude, look to where you lack respect in your life? If it is also an area where you desire more from than start doing the nitty gritty and in my case dirty tasks you must to obtaing that which you desire!