Home Teaching

I went home teaching to a new family tonight.  I was very impressed with this young couple. We made an appointment with them and they were there when we came.  They were very pleasant to us and made us feel very welcome.  As we learned more about them I was edified.  One of my grandpa's sayings that has stuck with me goes something like this:  he loves to go home teaching because he gets to see the burdens that people carry and when that happens, it brings him to Christ.  If I think of home teaching like this, it is more of a privilege than a responsibility.  

I'll share the thought that I shared with them with you.  It went something like this:
The gospel is amazing because it can take any person and make them better.  This applies to prophets and apostles as well as people that struggle like me.  One of the reasons the gospel can make us better people because of the scripture from Matthew 7:7 which says, "Ask, and it shall be given you...". I recently read about Nephi right after his vision.  Nephi had heard Lehi rehearse his vision of the tree of life and Nephi wanted to see for himself.  So he asked and he received; received much more in fact than is recorded that his father had received.  Right after he had experienced that, his brothers were fighting.  1 Nephi 15:3 says that, "they were disputing one with another concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them".  Nephi tells them in verse 8: "Have ye inquired of the Lord?"  I thought that was powerful because he had just experienced the fruit of asking and now he uplifts his brothers by reiterating the Lords admonition to ask.

I've been thinking about how I can be a better father, especially how I can have more patience with my kids.  I prayed about it a lot.  Then at general conference there was a talk that was written for me.  It probably was written for a lot of father's that were praying for guidance.  My prayers were answered and I know that if we ask, the Lord WILL answer.