Contention

We've been experiencing a lot of yelling, fighting, scratching (yes we've got girls) and other types of

contentious behavior.  This morning I was reading a wonderful talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson called, "The Canker of Contention".  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/the-canker-of-contention?lang=eng  He explained that contention comes from the Devil and yet the commandment from the Lord is that we have no contention.  Something inside of me "awoke" after reading this talk. I've always gone along accepting contention as a part of life but after reading this I realized that if God gives us a commandment he will help us keep it.  It is possible to keep the commandment to have no contention within ourselves and our families.

This past Sunday was Testimony meeting in Sacrament meeting.  A younger man shared some thoughts in his testimony and I've been thinking about them all week.  He talked about the feeling that he felt when he was younger and went to his grandparents home.  It was a feeling of love and peace.  As a youth he didn't recognize what he was feeling but as he got older he realized that those feelings were from the spirit he felt in their home.  He then explained that he had been called to serve in the nursery and the first time he gave the lesson the children seemed to pay little attention and he wondered why he should even bother.  Then he remembered the experience at his grandparents home - those feelings of peace and joy - the feelings of the spirit.  He explained that he realized that those nursery children needed to feel that same spirit from him and within the nursery class as he did while at his grandparents home.  His responsibility as a nursery leader wasn't just to teach a lesson and get the children to sit quietly and listen, more importantly he was to help facilitate an environment of peace where the spirit could be felt. 

As I've reflected upon the contention we are experiencing in our home I think about what this man shared about his grandparents home.  The solution is not only stopping the contention but inviting the spirit.  I think about the scripture in 4 Nephi 1:15, "...there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people."  When our hearts are filled with love for God there is no room for contention.  

I know that the family is the place where we can best learn to love God and to demonstrate our love for Him in how we treat each other.  My role as a mother is to lead by example and to teach by precept.  I need to make sure that I am not selfish and that I am placing love for God and keeping His commandments above all else help and teach my children to do like-wise.  I think that this will be our family theme for the month (or maybe two or three).