Help Them on Their Way Home

My thoughts on President Eyring's talk "Help Them on Their Way Home"

"But the only way out was for her to exercise faith in Jesus Christ, to have a broken heart, to repent, and so be cleansed, changed, and strengthened through the Lord’s Atonement. I bore my testimony to her that it was still possible. And it was, but so much harder than it would have been to exercise faith early in her life on the journey home to God and when she first began to wander."

I had a friend tell me once about her sister who had wander and while in her journey back said this to her, "It is possible to come back, but the road is so very hard and long, that I wish I would have listened and not strayed. This is so very hard, but so worth it."

"So we help God’s children best by providing ways to build faith in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel when they are young. And then we must help rekindle that faith quickly before it dims as they wander off the path."

I can only hope that I have helped my children build the faith necessary to sustain them when doubt sets in and they wander. And I hope they will allow me to help rekindle that fire. (Consistency)

"Foreseeing the needs of His children, a loving Heavenly Father placed directions and rescuers along their way. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to make safe passage possible and visible. He called as His prophet in these times President Thomas S. Monson. Since his youth President Monson has taught not only how to stay on the path but also how to rescue those who have been led away into sorrow."

And I pray for these "rescuers" daily, especially the local rescuers that influence my children in such personal ways. I pray not only for the prophet but for my bishop and the youth leaders and teachers. I pray that they will have the words that touch my sons' hearts and helps build their faith.

I also pray that there will be in the path of my children, great people who can touch their lives as well. I wish to high heavens that my brothers lived closer and could have had an influence on my sons lives. The longer I'm a parent and see what they have done in each other families, the more I wish they would have taken a bigger part in my sons' lives. I just now pray that someone here in Redmond can influence my sons for good. I know that my influence, though taught and repeated in my home, sounds like a broken record to my children. They know where I stand and how I feel. They need someone outside to influence them now and I just pray it will be to go on missions, go through the temple and grasp the Iron Rod with both hands.

"And we need to exemplify in our own lives the steady and prolonged faithfulness that the Lord expects of them. As we do, we will help them feel from the Spirit an assurance that if they will persist, they will hear the words from a loving Savior and Heavenly Father: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” And we who help them along the way will hear those words with joy."

I can only pray that is what I do.