Memory Jogger Monday - December 14

Archibald Garden - 2015

What are some of the personal values that are very important to you? What have you done (and what are you doing now) to teach these values to your children?

Some of the values that are really important to me are:
Hard Work

Honesty
Forgiveness
Faith
Integrity
Service

We are trying to teach our children these values by example. Here are my thoughts about a few of the values I've listed and what I'm doing to teach my children.

Hard Work

My father was a great example to me of hard work. He taught me how to work when I was young. One of the first paying jobs I had was pulling weeds; huge weeds. My siblings and I would stuff our grain sacks full of weeds; being sure to shake off any dirt. Then we weighed our bags and would get paid 5 cents a pound. There were some weeds that I hated as they made me itch. And other weeds I loved because they grew so tall and were so big and though they were hard to pull, they weighed a lot.

Today we teach our children about hard work as we work together as a family on our garden. Our children help prepare the garden by pulling weeds (not as many as in my youth), planting seeds, watering, and then helping with the harvest. Also our children see us working in other areas in our home and life.

Faith

We show forth faith by actively doing things. We believe in our Father in Heaven and in His living Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. We actively do things they have asked us to do. We serve others, we keep the Sabbath day holy, we read the scriptures, attend the temple often and we teach our children to actively show their beliefs as well. Our children pray and earnestly thank their Heavenly Father for blessings received and ask for blessings for family members. We teach our children that blessings always come as we patient wait for needed blessings. When we have prayed about something and then the blessing is received we point out that blessing to our children so they too know the blessing did come.

Service

This summer we chose to serve our neighbors by making cookies each week and choosing 4-6 families with which to share our cookies. Our children loved to take the cookies to each home. By the end of the summer we had met with over 60 of our neighbors. We involve our children when we make meals to take to others. We also show them by example when we clean the snow off our neighbor's sidewalks and driveways.

See this post for more information about "Memory Jogger Monday": 

Writing a Personal History or Keeping a Journal