Recently, my four-year-old and my seven-year-old have discovered what it's like to have lots of kids playing on your street and an endless stream of activity. Saturday was no different. The sky was turning dark with the possibility of a thunderstorm and the air was cool and moist. The entire neighborhood was outside playing.
But, eventually, it started to rain, and my kids asked if they could go over to the neighbors house for a bit. I said yes because I was in the middle of cooking dinner.
We just moved into our house about 3 months ago. So, we are getting to know everyone in the neighborhood. We've had lots of talks with our kids about appropriate behavior when at another person's home, and many talks about how other families do things differently than our own. They have had to learn the tough rule that sometimes mommy will say no even when "everyone else" is getting to do something.
They were gone about 45 minutes when I called for them to come home. When they walked in the door, they were obviously upset. I asked what was wrong, and my seven-year-old started in on a story about something they were watching on TV. I groaned inside. This was not going to be good.
They were shaken as they re-told me a story about what sounded like an episode of the TV show Ghost Hunters. Something I obviously would never let my kids watch at home. They can barely make it through an episode of Scooby-Doo without having bad dreams. Throughout dinner, they were barely talking, and just not themselves. We had a talk about what to do when you see something that you don't want to watch or shouldn't watch at someone else's house. We even went over appropriate responses. I reiterated things I had already told them about how when they are at someone else's house, I don't want them watching TV anyway because I don't know what is on.
I made a mental note to talk to my neighbor about the incident later. No sense in barging over there right then.
But, by the time bedtime came around, I could tell we were in for a rough night. Both of them were still scared when they went to bed. We prayed for Heavenly Father to help them forget whatever they had seen, and I sang primary songs before bed. My four-year-old fell asleep quickly, but woke up about an hour later clinging to me and saying he was scared. My seven-year-old was having a rougher time. She couldn't fall asleep, and when she did, she awoke crying. As midnight rolled around and she still was not settled, I sent my husband in to do something. Anything. At this point, I was furious at the neighbor for allowing them to watch something so scary. Although, I'm not sure she even knew what they were doing. A different problem entirely.
The next morning, I asked my husband what his magic trick was. How did he get her to go to sleep? I wanted to know. He said he felt prompted to give her a priesthood blessing. He asked her if she wanted one, and she said yes.
After the blessing, she didn't say a word, but rolled over, went instantly to sleep, and hasn't been upset by the incident since. It was a testimony builder for us all.
I am so grateful to have a husband that honors his priesthood. I'm grateful that my daughter had the faith to get a blessing and understand that she was helped by it. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that taught me that more than ever, I need to protect these little ones. But, if I can't, His priesthood power can always help to restore faith, and bless our lives for good.
***
". . . By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and
righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life
and protection for their families. . . ." The Family: A Proclamation to the World Hop on over to A Well Behaved Mormon Woman and Chocolate on My Cranium to see what they have to say during our Family Proclamation celebration!
---
+048.JPG)
