Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Character Tool

A couple of years ago, when I was called to serve as our ward Young Women President, I was reintroduced to the For the Strength of Youth booklet. I quickly found out what a worth while tool it is for our youth and us as adults.

In speaking of For the Strength of Youth booklet Elder Tingey said, "In the For the Strength of Youth booklet, the following standards, among others, are like a North Star to you: choose friends with high standards, do not disfigure your body with tattoos or body piercings, avoid pornography, do not listen to music that contains offensive language, do not use profanity, date only those who have high standards, remain sexually pure, repent as necessary, be honest, keep the Sabbath day holy, pay tithing, keep the Word of Wisdom."

While serving as Young Women's President I made an effort to read applicable passages with each lesson. I would also read the dancing section each time there was a school dance to them in opening exercises and encourage them to keep their covenants and remain pure.

In many ways I find it sad that we have to be so explicit about things. I found reading it straight out of the book to be a lot easier though, followed by a discussion.

When I was called we also began to include it in Family Home Evenings. Each week we read a section together and discuss it with them. We started this when our children were young. There has never been a question about our standards. It is from my continued reading of this that I have such high personal standards in movies, books, computer viewing, dancing and music. There were several parts we did omit that were not age appropriate in the beginning, but we are now reading to them.

After reading it we will have a discussion about that standard. We make sure they understand. We also discuss ways that our family can do a better job keeping that standard. We have made changes based on some of our discussions. Sometimes we also look up the scriptures.

As each member of our family turns 8 they are given their own copy to keep with their scriptures. They do study it on their own. Alex and I also have our own copies and ours are marked up. (I'm on my second booklet). We use them for our talks and teaching lessons. Alex has also used the booklets in the children's weekly interviews from time to time. We also have the small copies stored in our purses and wallets.

I am grateful for this tool that we have that can reinfornce the standards we are trying to teach.

4 comments:

Googs said...

Thanks so much for reminding us about this great tool. We often refer to the booklet when teaching our kids, but I think we could incorporate it a lot more. I like the idea of giving a copy to them when they get baptized. Thanks!

crazy4boys said...

I love the book Before They Turn 12 to help teach For the Strength of Youth. Each lesson focuses on a different topic. The book has stories and activities for each topic which is great because we have younger children and it holds their attention.

We are trying to work out an FHE rotation and study the Proclamation to the World, the Living Christ, President Hinckley's 9 B's, For the Strength of Youth, the Articles of Faith. I also need to figure out a few other topics that aren't covered by these, but we just sort of rotate through them.

Misty said...

We have loved using For Strength of Youth as part of our school curriculum. You gave me some great ideas in implementing it in other aspects of our family.

Once again, a big thank you!

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