Love Is the Greatest

The first scripture I came across on my search is found in Mosiah chapter 4. Check out verses 14-15:

And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the devil spirit which has been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

Let’s break that down some.

First, the temporal needs. They’re kids, and as their parents, we are responsible to ensure their safety and security as well as provide for their physical needs (clothing, food, shelter).

I’ve heard plenty of people say that a child will never hear what you say over the grumble of their own stomach.

I don’t think it’s by mistake that the temporal needs are mentioned here first, however I also don’t think that the use of the word “neither” is by accident. It doesn’t say “And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; and then ye shall ensure that they transgress not the laws of God…”. The word neither implies that at the same time we’re providing for their temporal, we should also be teaching them things.

These verses give us a list of things to teach them:

1. The laws of God (how will they know not to “transgress” them if they don’t even know what they are?)
2. To be kind to one another
3. To be aware of the devil and how he works so that they don’t become a slave to him
4. The truth
5. How to be sober (I honestly had to look this one up. I started with the footnote in the verse – it says Sincere. Then I looked it up at dictionary.com and it said, “marked by seriousness, gravity, solemnity, etc., as of demeanor, speech, etc.” I like the sincere definition better. We should teach our children to be sincere.)
6. To love one another
7. To serve one another

That all has me trying to think of ways I can teach them these things. My oldest is 2 (3 in a few weeks). Which of these things does (or can) she even understand? The other two girls are 10 months. They’re probably a little young to learn the laws of God.

Or are they? I suppose there are arguments on both sides. I think the key here is to be involved enough in my girls’ lives that I’ll know when they’re ready to learn bits and pieces.

Here’s the thing – there’s no way that the turdler is going to learn, comprehend, retain, and live all of the laws of God even if I made her some flashcards and went over them with her every single day (which I am not going to do – let’s be real here). So, what can I do?

My first thought was … well, it would’ve made a great Pinterest board, but is simply unrealistic for me. You want to know what it is? Think of one person we could serve every day and turn it into a teaching moment.

Ok, so, it’s arguable that we do that anyway, right? I mean, I make breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner for three kids under three every day. Hubs helps out a lot with that on the weekends and frequently takes care of dinner too. We buy them clothes, toys, books, and take them places where they can experience new things. But are those things acts of service or are they simply my responsibility as their mom? I can see both sides.

No, the kind of service that came to my mind was something like cookies delivered to the neighbor, a thank you or thinking-of-you note sent to a friend, “Booing” someone’s house (Halloween time), 13-days of Christmas, you know – the BIG things that really say “HEY! We’re serving you!”

I laugh even as I think about how we could possibly make that work around here.

But that doesn’t mean that I can’t still teach them something.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment of all is that we love the Lord, and then the second one is “like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt. 22:36-39). Maybe, if I just teach them to love each other, that will be enough (for now). If I teach them to love each other, then perhaps they’ll be kind and honest and they’ll serve one another. Then, as they grow and their comprehension increases, I can teach them the laws of God and the ways in which the devil tries to get us to break those laws.

To teach them to love each other, I have to show them. I can point out to them when I’m showing love for them and I need to be sure they KNOW that I love them – I have to tell them every day, with sincerity. It’s not something I should say lightly. Telling my children I love them should be something I say while looking in their eyes; something they can feel as I say it. And I do love them, so that won’t be hard. Is it enough?