Who is the teacher?

As a parent I am responsible for teaching my children right from wrong. Every day I see the many challenges and decisions that my children will have to face as they go to school and meet new friends. I see the struggles my daughter has as she tries to weigh in her mind and heart how to respond to situations at school and among her friends.

Have I taught her well enough? The situations she faces today are far simpler than the ones she will face as a teenager, and the choices are simpler as well. Or are they? The choices our children make today can only strengthen or weaken them for the future. The "process" in which our children make choices are, or should be, the same way they should make choices as a teenager. So what makes choices so hard for teenagers?

Story time; Just before Halloween, at a local Walmart, my children and I were enjoying an evening shopping for Halloween goodies. We were in an isle with all the gruesome masks and adult costumes( which happened to be all mixed in with kids costumes-----Big NO-NO). We were not alone in that isle. There happened to be another family there, an older family, one with teenagers. My children , who were playing with all of the ugly masks, decided to have fun with there older children. They would put on a mask and turn around and say boo, or trick or treat. The teenagers didn't seem to be too bothered by it and would act all scared. One of them was particularly playful with my kids and as Haylie said boo, the older girl took the Heavenly Father's name in vain.

I, who am supposed to be the teacher, said nothing.....who am I to tell a complete stranger how act or what to say? It was not more than a mere second before Haylie piped up and said very strongly...." you can't say that! That is Heavenly Fathers name." I could have been blushing, I do not know because I was focused on the poor girl my daughter had just lectured, who was definitely blushing. The girl quickly corrected herself and said..." oh, sorry.....I mean Oh my goodness". Haylie gave her a big grin and then continued playing with the masks.

Not 2 minutes later, in that same isle, my other daughter Sydney, came across something rather disturbing. Mixed in with all of the children's costumes were some very inappropriate adult costumes. Some of barely there dresses and others of men dressed as women. Sydney pointed to one in particular that a teenage boy was looking at. It was of a very obese man dressed in a bikini.....a string bikini. The teenage boy was asking his mom to get that one for him......and she was actually considering it. Sydney hesitated for a moment but then asked me why the boy wanted that costume. He obviously heard us ( since my daughter has no clue what a whisper is), and replied that it was funny. She replied back ," it isn't funny...it's gross! And it isn't modest".

Again I could feel my face turning red, but it was the boy's mother's face that was most red I think. She told her son that he had better pick something else. End of story.

So..... who taught who? Did my children teach the strangers in the store? Did my children teach me not to be scared to stand up for what is right? Did I teach them to be that brave? Will they always be that brave?

I am eternally grateful for the truths that my parents taught me and for the knowledge they had because of the restoration of the Gospel, through Joseph Smith. I am eternally grateful for the love of a Heavenly Father who would send us someone to teach us and ultimately pay for our sins that we might live again. I am always in awe of the love I feel from my Savior as I watch my children grow and answer their questions about the Gospel. I know that I am teaching truths to them and I know that they will be able to rely on their testimonies of those truths to give them strength . This is my testimony and I bear it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.