The Most Important Message

I while back I saw a bumper sticker on someone's vehicle that said something like, "My child is excellent." I've seen plenty of stickers that say something positive about a child, for example, declaring that the child is an honor student at their school. I began to wonder to myself, "What do I want to say about my child?"

Praise and compliments generally good, and I'm sure we need more of them. At the same time, I'm wary of some praise for a couple of reasons. Sometimes our seemingly positive remarks can become pride-inducing flattery. Also, a positive remark about one person can imply a negative remark about another (see "The Tongue of Angels", Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, 177th Annual General Conference, April 2007).

After a moment of reflection, I decided on the most important message for my children. It is a message I don't care to broadcast to the world, though it is and should be applicable to all. The most important thing I will tell my children is this: "You are a child of God."

It's a beautiful statement so simply put, and it carries with it many important implied truths. Such a statement does not give a person any reason for boasting and does not denigrate anyone else. It does carry with it a sense of hope, destiny, and duty in righteousness. While it makes no determination of our worthiness before our Heavenly Father, it is a reminder that the evil and wasteful things of the world are unworthy of us. As my children grow it will serve as a reminder of covenants they have made with God, and throughout life it will be essential knowledge in guiding their lives, because they will come to know who they are intended to be and the eternal existence they are intended to have.

So that's what I want my kids to know.

Last thoughts for now:
I hope to teach my children many things, and to raise them up with a good knowledge of the gospel. It will be vital for them to understand the Atonement and the Restoration; however, before my children can fully appreciate these things, and even if they understand nothing else, I want them to understand with certainty the words of a beloved song when they sing them: "I am a child of God."