Understanding Our Children's Struggles ~ Part One

As a mother, one of the greatest gifts of love we can give to our children is to understand and sympathize with the struggles they are going through.  But, if you are like me, sometimes it is hard to remember just what it was like to be a child and experience spiritual, emotional and physical difficulties on their level.  It is easy to get caught up in the "lofty" matters of life and forget that our children's concerns are just as lofty to them as ours are to us.  It is easy to trivialize their heartaches.  You have heard adults do this, I am sure.  "Oh, when you grow up, this will be so meaningless to you...you will have so many other bigger problems to be concerned about."  If you are like me, adults have said the same thing to you when you were a child.  And, if you are like me, you felt hurt when they said it...as if, once again, you just couldn't find someone to understand the heartache that at that moment was so real.  It is hard sometimes for us as mothers to get down to a child's level and really empathize with them.  But, it is so needful.  Our Savior does that to us.  He does that to them.  And He is our example that we should emulate in all things.  I suppose most of our struggles could look rather insignificant to governing all of creation...and yet our Heavenly Father lovingly listens to our hurts and struggles and cares deeply for the pain we are experiencing.  I don't know about you, but I want to be that type of an example to my children.  God brought this to my attention the other day through the writing of my daughter and the words from a wonderful book I am  currently reading.  How did God use those two to remind me of this very important point?  In a way only He can do.  I will share it with you next post.  It is a little long, so for those Mommys that do not have time to sit down and read lengthy writings, I will break it up in two parts.  In the meantime, let us pray that God gives us an understanding heart when it comes to the struggles and concerns of our children.  And in so doing, we will become more and more like the Savior we serve.