Cruelty

It is something that we have all experienced, hopefully not personally, but we have all witnessed acts of cruelty in our life. I just finished watching a movie "The boy in the striped pajamas" I would not recommend it to anyone. It is a movie about an 8 year old Jew boy during the Holocaust. And as I lay here in bed at 11:00pm unable to sleep, by heart hurts because of the amount of cruelty that exists in the world. How can people be so hateful, and mean? You can not watch the news without hearing of murder, and robbery and acts of hate. WHY? What makes someones heart so hard? I can only imagine the hurt our Father in Heaven must feel as he watches his children do such horrid things, and then I look at my innocent 3 year old little boy sleeping so peacefully next to me and I cry. I cry because he has yet to know the cruelty of this world, the evil that exists, the anger and hatred that run rampant.... but he will.... and that is almost more than I can bear. I would give anything to keep him from that. But I know with a sureity that these sweet little spirits that are sent to this earth in these times have been saved. They are the elect children of our Heavenly Father who will fight the battle between good and evil in these last days. They are born with such keen intellect and strong will and determination. There are times when that strong will makes me pull my hair out, but I think my job as a mother is to help them learn how to use that will for good. And so I pray, I pray for the strength to help them to become what they need to be. I pray that I can teach them to love no matter the race, or the gender, or the religion or the mistakes. I hope I can teach them to be slow to judge and quick to forgive. I pray I instill in them a love for the gospel, that they will stand firm for the truth and not falter. I hope that they will see the "black and white" and not dabble in the "grey", that they will build a testimony of Christ, and of his gospel, a testimony strong enough to withstand those that would tear them down and lead them astray. I hope I can teach them to lean on their Heavenly Father, and fight the cruelty in the world.

I have never been more grateful for the gospel. It is truly a gospel of peace, of good news, and of hope. As I was laying here with such a feeling of despair something that President Monson said in conference came to my mind...

"While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach"

I hope that I can teach my kids to be some of the right and good that exists in the world.