Love and Encouragement

Don't we all just need some love and encouragement? I know that the best thing I received from my parents and my family growing up was love and encouragement. There were also expectations and I knew that they had expectations for me, because they loved me!
President Hinckley has said, "As Children grow through the years, their lives, in large measure, become an extension and a reflection of family teaching. If there is harshness, abuse, uncontrolled anger, disloyalty, the fruits will be certain and discernible, and in all likelihood they will be repeated in the generation that follows. if , on the other hand, there is forbearance, forgiveness, respect, consideration, kindness, mercy, and compassion, the fruits again will be discernible, and they will be eternally rewarding. They will be positive and sweet and wonderful...I speak to fathers and mothers everywhere with a plea to put harshness behind us, to bridle our anger, to lower our voices, and to deal with mercy and love and respect one toward another in our homes." I love this quote, because you realize that you are wanting to allow growth, understanding, independence, but that this is achievable through acceptance, proper and loving rearing, not through control.
We all need to realize what our parents are trying to accomplish, in whatever tactics they use and understand that if we respect them and what they are trying to do, we will better be able to understand their needs as well.
So, how do we become the type of parents that President Hinckley has described? We have got to love the Lord and use the tools he has given us to constantly change and improve each day. Change is important, because none of us are perfect.
Dallin H. Oaks said, "The purpose of the gospel is to transform common creatures into celestial citizens, and that requires change." 
I love that the gospel is the key in helping us become all that we are meant to be. We have help along the way as we learn to bridle ourselves and see the world the way that Christ does.
"The key", Elder Robert D. Hales has taught, "to strengthening our families is having the Spirit of the Lord come into our homes."

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has said, "...to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this god-given responsibility."


(In regards to Chapter 11 of the text, "Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamation Principles and Research Perspectives")