Baptism and the Sacrament

 I became aware that, the sacrament renews our baptismal covenant, within the last few years.  I feel sad that I spent so much of my life, in the church, not understanding this.  I'm a primary president so I thought it was important to teach that doctrine to the children.  There is no song that explicitly says there is a connection.  There is also no song that talks about the miracles performed in Christ's earthly ministry.  We have so many songs about being reverent, but why not these doctrines? 

So I am marinating (southern for contemplating) the connection of baptism and the sacrament and want to write a song for primary about it.  Then I thought, "If there's no song about it, maybe I am just imagining this connection because I think it would be nice if there was one."  Thank goodness for LDS.org.  I was able to find several talks about renewing baptismal covenants through the sacrament.  Hurray, I didn't imagine it.  It just took me 30 years to get it.

Here are some excerpts:

Claim the Blessings of your Covenants

"Why does the Savior put so much importance upon the sacrament, dear sisters? What importance does this weekly renewal of our baptismal covenants play in our lives? Do we recognize the ability of the Savior to completely cleanse us every week as we worthily and thoughtfully partake of the sacrament?"

The trials and tribulation that we experience may be the very things that guide us to come unto Him and cling to our covenants so that we might return to His presence and receive all that the Father hath.

We sometimes, as women, have a tendency to be very critical of ourselves. During these times we need to seek the Spirit and ask, “Is this what the Lord wants me to think about myself, or is Satan trying to beat me down?” Remember the nature of our Heavenly Father, whose love is perfect and infinite.⁶ He wants to build us up, not tear us down.

Finally Homeschooling

In our primary program the older children played "I will follow God's plan for me" on the bells.   lP wanted to be able to play it too.  So I wrote out this version for her to play.  It was really sweet how hard she worked to play it.

 M drew this jack-o-lantern and I cut it out.  Then I cooked it.  The crock pot works really well for cooking it down without drying it out.  I'm sold.  We took this picture so she could remember that one time her mom really did let her have a jack-o-lantern.  Usually I just cook them down.

 G has 4 Lego Hero characters and he wanted to make a Hero Factory.  So he cleaned up the pit that is known as the lego room.  And set up all the components.  It's been sweet for the children to have a place to play with all the small pieces without driving me crazy.

B is finally big enough to wander around in the front yard.  It's amazing to see him exploring.

G kept asking for more time at school.  Poor boy really missed going to gym.  This year he was only at school for about 2.5 hours.  The school lets him come to school for 2 classes.  And if those classes are before and after lunch and recess, he can attend those too.  Anyway, we just got permission to switch the 2 classes.  So now he goes to math and p.e..

This is turning out to be a much nicer schedule for our family.  Before we would leave ~9 to drop him off.  Then go back at 12 to pick him up.  Then we'd go back to town for Speech, Drama, Piano etc...  Now we don't leave until almost 12.  We pick him up at 2:30 and stay in town for our other appointments.  Less back and forth.

Best of all, we are actually homeschooling in the morning in a structured way that I love.  We eat breakfast, then sing circle songs.  Then we go do some book work.  Then the kids play for an hour or so.  It's so nice!  I don't feel like I'm constantly coming and going.  It's a nice time.  B is old enough and very independent. So he just plays while I do work with M and G.  P loves to work along side the older kids with her drawings and words.  It's pretty great.

Primary Program Phew!

Our church does a program every year with the children singing and reciting scriptures they've learned that year.  Today we had the program and it is the 3rd one I've been primary president for.  It went really well.  The practices never seemed to get much better.  But I'm thrilled that it went off so well.  A lot of children chose to sign, including some children of deaf adults.  It's been a sweet process to see those children able to overcome whatever was keeping them from that adorable sign of affection.