I have had the biblical story of Daniel pressing on my heart and turning gears in my mind for more than a couple of weeks. These thoughts have followed me to sleep, to when I’m driving in the car, on runs, to Utah, to the temple, to the Roots of Knowledge art installation, to conversations with wise friends, to General Conference, and back home to Arkansas, and now to the blog. I showed
this video to my family for FHE to hear their feedback, thoughts, and ideas.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-03-10-god-gave-them-knowledge?lang=eng
In the General Women’s Conference Session, we were asked to read the Book of Mormon again by the end of the year, attend the temple more regularly (or study about temple blessings), participate fully in Relief Society, and participate in a 10 day social media fast (or any negative media) and record what we observe.
Back to Daniel.
Obedience are Knowledge are two themes we’re really focusing on in our family.
We noticed a similarity that Daniel abstained from King Nebuchadnezzar’s wine and meat fest (haha the kids called his feast a “bacon cleanse” like the skit from Studio C) for 10 days, and his obedience gave him great knowledge and wisdom as well as the gift of understanding visions and interpretation of dreams. Daniel then used these gifts to bless others. The Prophet, President Russel M Nelson, encouraged a social media fast for as many days. I will not speculate what specific outcome await the members of my family who choose to engage in following the prophet, but through personal revelation, I do know of a few promised blessings that are specific to us.
With this knowledge we questioned our children in FHE, “how are we going to do the things we’ve been asked to do?
They suggested waking up earlier and doing scripture study in the morning, before school, instead of at bedtime, when we are distracted by the happenings of the day (or our end of the day feelings about each other haha!)
So here is the Willardson Family on day one of early morning family scripture study. We still do a shorter “scripture time” in the evening with family prayers, so the 3 littles can participate. Getting the 4 big kids up earlier is, so far, exactly as difficult and as easy as we anticipated. We have faith that this will bring our family close together and give us knowledge we desire. “Tired, but hopeful” is just great.
I put up some words from Joseph Brough’s talk on our chalkboard, this weekend. You’ve got this, Willies!
As we approach our first successful week of a higher effort, the children report that waking up earlier is not easy at all, but they like reading more than just a page or part of one chapter. Soren confidently said in the FHE where we created our plan, “I’m going to be blessed as a better reader!”—and then he threw up all night. The next morning we all got up for day one, and Soren was sleeping on a blanket on the living room floor with a puke bowl. We tried to let him sleep but he pulled his blanket into the kitchen floor and sleepily said, “is today when we follow the prophet?” And he listened from the floor and asked for a turn to read between pukes. Soren’s obedience inspired me to try a little harder to be a force for good in my home and to lead my family in righteousness by not complaining about the early hour, but instead boast joyfully in the goodness of the blessing that has been given to my family and recognize the great privilege it is that it’s even possible for all of us to be awake and together to read at the same time, and that at least one of my children is totally enthusiastic about it. Others have been less than pleasant on differing days, abd I hope that part gets easier (it WAS their idea after all!) but if not, at least in their murmuring, were still willing to come to the table and be present and that is a success. We are committed to just try try try.
More about what we’re learning from Daniel to come in a future post. Most importantly, I hope our family draws closer to the Savior, Jesus Christ, as we practice exact obedience ttogether.
