Gospel Insights to Parenting


“The key to strengthening our families is having the Spirit of the Lord come into our homes.”

         Elder Robert D. Hales

We came to this earth to practice our agency. Our parenting styles should reflect this principle. It should reflect the model that our Heavenly Father gave to us. He gives us guidelines that we should live by to yield the best result, but ultimately He allows us to choose.

Authoritative parents have a good balance of high warmth and high expectations. This balance leads children to be more receptive to parental influence. What we do with this parental influence is crucial. Behavioral control is sometimes necessary for positive child outcomes. Psychological control, however, is generally considered to be a very negative influence for parents to practice. Psychological control can include love withdrawal and guilt induction.

My mom did a really great job with authoritative parenting, and I am grateful for that, because it gave me an example to follow. She allowed me to make my own decisions while I was growing up. I'm sure it was really hard for her to watch me fail sometimes. In the end, though, I didn't feel a need to rebel because I was already responsible for my actions. She let the natural consequences follow.

Keeping the Spirit within our homes can allow us to practice better parenting habits. Would a mother that is filled with the Spirit ever withdraw love from her child? Absolutely not. When we continue to do the little things such as scripture reading and praying, we can maintain the Spirit in our home and ultimately become better parents.


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