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| ©Darrell Wyatt |
I read a quote this week that really got me thinking. It was by James Baldwin, an American author, and he said, "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them". So very, very true.
As we sit as a family and read scriptures each night, my kids all want a marking pencil in their hands. They watch me intently to see which passages I am going to highlight, and they will not continue reading until they have highlighted all the same verses that they saw me mark. It is times like this that I don't mind the six little copycats that follow me around the house. On the other hand, every time that I watch my oldest daughter send her younger brothers and sisters down to her room to fetch something or speak to them in a less than kind voice, I am reminded that these kids aren't just picking up my good habits. They're picking up on everything that I do and say and storing it in their sweet little heads for use at an appropriate (or inappropriate, as the case may be) time.
Now the people of Akish were desirous for gain, even as Akish was desirous for power...(Ether 9:11)
If there is a recurring theme in today's chapters, it's that wickedness begets wickedness and righteousness begets righteousness. There was a lot of kingdom overthrowing going on in these chapters. Sons removing their fathers from the throne, brothers fighting to restore their fathers. The kingdom was most always passed down to a righteous son who would be overthrown or killed by a wicked family member. When a righteous ruler would take the throne again, there was usually peace for few years before the cycle started again, because the new king would "fill the steps of his father"(Ether 9:15, 23).
As I am raising my kids, as much as I try to make the right decisions, I will make mistakes. I will leave footsteps for them to follow in that may not be exactly what they should be. I can only hope that they can look past the imperfect steps and choose to follow in the righteous ones. I just need to make sure that the good footsteps far outnumber the faulty ones.
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