When I Raise My Children

When I raise my children, I want them to fear not failure or opposition, but instead embrace it with full and open hearts. I want to dance in the rain with them. I want to jump out of trees into great big leaf piles with them. I want to build giant snow castles and sleep in home made igloos. I want to go exploring in the woods and play hide and seek in the house. I want to read great stories of daring adventures with them. I want to have a book open in every room so that when they are ready to learn, the option is there, and I want the walls of my home to be lined with books. I want them to bake cookies to surprise me and accidentally put salt in place of sugar. I want them to sing and to laugh and to be joyful - and I want to be that way with them.

When I raise my children, I want them to never see my wife and I fight, but instead sit them down with a box of legos and a fantastic vision while my wife and I settle our dispute elsewhere. I want to treat my wife like the daughter of God that she is, that my children will see this, and know how to treat their mother. I want to be peaceful in my heart and conscious in my actions, that I may make place for the spirit of God to dwell in me.

When I raise my children, I want to bring the spirit of the Lord into my home. I hope to be worthy of that honor. I hope to be worthy of the honor and the responsibility God gave me by guiding me to the lady I shall marry, and giving me the children we shall raise together. I want to fill their heads with knowledge, their hearts with love, their bodies with strength, and their spirits with peace. 

When my children leave home, I hope to send them on their way with great dreams and aspirations, and a work ethic to match. Mostly, I hope to send them with the spirit. May it be so.

God's will be done always.