Sally Hildebrandt
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Counseling family members
As my group was reading and discussing 1Nephi 15:25 in our joint meeting on Sunday, I was impressed that Nephi counseled his family members "with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed". As parents of adult children, we sometimes struggle with knowing what our role is in counseling our grown-up children. On the one hand we believe that our role is to "teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves" but, at other times, we still feel prompted to offer some counsel and advice. We see our children counseling and advising each other, as well. This passage of scripture reminded me of the many examples in the scriptures when fathers counseled adult children. Sometimes the children asked their fathers for advice and other times, it was unsolicited. What I learned was that it is good to offer counsel and advice when the Spirit directs. We, as parents, shouldn't avoid those opportunities or feel that it is no longer our role.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks Sally for your insight. I have often felt conflicted in my role as a father in offering council to my adult children. My tendency has been to be very careful in hopes that we likewise have taught them correctly and now is the time that they were to govern themselves. I perhaps need to be bolder when I feel the spirit urging me to do so.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I don't have adult children, but the calling of father or mother doesn't end at 18 nor at any point in this life. It extends into the eternities.
ReplyDelete