On Nonsense

On nonsense: “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”

Dr. Seuss

On Confidence

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

 

On Humility

“Being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others” -Gordon B. Hinckely

On Boy Behavior

Human Needs Psychology (HNP)

The concept of 6 core needs, or six human needs as discussed by Anthony Robbins seeks to explain the primary human needs that drive behavior.

According to Anthony Robbins, "we are all driven by the need to fulfill six human needs basically. These 6 basic human needs are not just desires or wants, but profound needs which serve as the basis of every choice we make".

1. Certainty
    The need for security, comfort and consistency.

2. Uncertainty
    The need for variety and challenges.

3. Significance
    The need to feel important, needed, wanted and worthy of love.

4. Love and Connection
    The need for feeling connected with and loved by other human beings.

5. Growth
    The need for constant development emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

6. Contribution
    Giving beyond ourselves and giving to others.

On Being Present

"Families need unstructured time when relationships can deepen and real parenting can take place. Take time to listen, to laugh, and to play together."

M. Russell Ballard

On The Teen Years

"Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest upon reciprocity."
Neal A. Maxwell

On The Teen Years

"There seems to be something inside each of us that resists being told or pushed or pulled. But if someone puts an arm around a young man and walks alongside him, he is likely to follow along..."

M. Russell Ballard

On Cradles and Kitchens

“When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time.”
― Neal A. Maxwell

On Extraordinary Work

“God's extraordinary work is most often done by ordinary people in the seeming obscurity of a home and family.”
― Neal A. Maxwell

On Encouragement

Sometimes I would overburden myself with complicated ruminations of how I should be encouraging my boys.  This quote really sums up how simple our affirmations to them can be.

“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”
― Kathryn Stockett, The Help

On Being Present

Heaven Is Mornings With Children

The morning was yet pink and cool when a little body showed up in my bed.
His head tucked into my stretched shoulder, his arms wrapped around my torso in a snug fit.
My early-rising son had outdone himself this morning. He was up even before the singing birds congregating in the fir tree just outside the window.
I kissed his furry head and the smooth spot between his earlobe and cheek. The gods blessed this boy with enviable skin, more like satin than human, a new compulsion to my fingertips.
His eyes closed and mouth opened. I watched him return back to the realm of rocket-infused dreams.
Here was the point of no return. A temporary place in the human existence tucked in between mother and father and away from worries. I wanted to tell my son's spirit to remember this moment, a safe spot anxiety-free.
This is where we want to be when our hearts are broken, our dreams are slashed and reality settles in. To return to the luxury life of mornings enfolded in your parents' arms and safety blankets when college exams beat at your will, taxes come due with no way to pay and the roof of your new little house begins to leak.
Those heavy moments are nothing like this.
Isn't heaven a replica of mornings burrowed between two relaxed parents?
And then my spirit says to me the same.
Remember this moment, a safe spot anxiety-free. It is the point you will want to return to when he gets too busy for you. Cursed with the speed of time, his mornings will soon be filled with the beeping of waking alarms and swift breakfasts on his way out into a world you can't share.
This is where you will want to return when he's tiptoeing past a curfew or moving out to save souls or, heaven forbid, falling in love with another woman. There is a finite time, the spirit says, when you occupy so much of his consciousness. This moment is for you.
And I decide: This is heaven.

C. Jane Kendrick writes for cjanerun.com, is on facebook as C.Jane Kendrick and tweets as CJaneKendrick. She lives in Provo with her husband and three children.

On Encouragement

Often as mothers we second-guess our attempts at "on the job" mothering and sometimes succumb to an overwhelming feeling of fear that we might get it wrong or even worse, got it wrong (those of us adjusting to an empty nest).  We are just sure there is some other mother out there who could do the job better with our children! That finite thought and the subsequent emotional fall-out can be stifling to the continued flow of our God-given instincts and moments of true inspiration that we have a right to as the mother chosen by Heavenly Father to love and nurture our children.  As an antidote to that sneaky feeling common to every mother I have ever known here's a quote that I find comforting.

"I had to make a leap, a leap of faith, over the gap of imperfection I perceived in myself, my relationships, and my life, to trust that love could never truly be shattered or destroyed.  Only my limited concept of it needed to crumble. (Thank goodness!)  I had to come to a new understanding that love is not an end product chiseled out of the fulfillment of unrealistic expectations of a life---or a relationship---free of conflict.  Love is constant.  Love is steady despite my emotional ups and downs, despite my failures and disappointments, achievements and losses.  Perhaps most importantly I had to recognize that sadness, anger, disappointment, and pain are not antithetical to love, but  are instead signs of love.  Signs of love growing, deepening, being refined like ore in a fire."

Anne M Johnson, ("Return to the Sea")