I have always loved our country. I have had a special feeling of pride for the US from a young age. And now being a mother in America, I have had two main goals as a parent. (among many smaller ones)
1. To teach my children the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want them to understand Gods plan for us, the beauty of His love, and the blessings of the Atonement of our Savior.
2. To teach my children to love our country! The USA! I hope to teach them to support our troops, and be thankful for those fallen soldiers for the freedoms we enjoy!
Today I was blessed to see that I was able to teach Kaylee a small glimpse of those two goals.
We live in close proximity to a military base. And today we were leaving Walmart when it happened. Kaylee and I were pushing the cart to the truck and right in front of us were two soldiers. Kaylee asked, "mom, who are they?" I told her that those are soldiers. They defend and protect our country. We should always give them respect, prayers, and gratitude. We got to the truck and realized that these soldiers were parked right next to us. I told her that she should give them a "salute". I showed her what one looked like, and then she waited until they were watching, and proudly put her hand up to her brow and gave her best 3 year old salute. They saw her, and thanked her for her salute. She said, "Thank you for being soldiers. We will pray for you." One of the soldiers replied, "Thank you, I needed to hear that today. We can always use the prayers." Then we waived at the soldiers again, and pulled away. While driving home, I told Kaylee, "Thank you for saluting our soldiers, that was very nice of you." She replied, "Mom, can we pray for them now?" I said, "of course we can, but mommy needs to keep driving the truck, so you will have to say it." So, Kaylee began to pray in the truck on the way home. It was a very sweet, sincere, and loving prayer for all of the soldiers of our country. One of the things she said was, "Heavenly Father, thank you very much for all of our soldiers. Bless them with the things they need and protect them."
I was very proud to be her mother, and to see that I have started to accomplish my two goals as a parent. I will never forget that Sweet Salute from my 3 year old, daughter Kaylee!
3 comments:
That is ADORABLE and gave me chills...how sweet of her...and how great for the soldiers to see that!! I too am very grateful for our country...and hope to teach my kids the importance of loving America!! This is one of my FAVORITE times of the year with 4th of July coming...good luck doing more with your goals!!! You're doing great!!
Wow - what a wonderful story - and to hear something like that from such a precious 3 yr old. Good Job, Karen! I have those 2 goals as well. I recently got a book from Deseret Book called "How to Raise an American" It's full of good ideas on how to teach patriotism to kids. Love you!
Just so you know, I (Julie) left that last message for you - not my husband, Jeff!
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