Our Primary Program

We had our primary program yesterday. For those of you who don't know, I serve in our primary presidency. The theme for this year was "My Eternal Family."

We had a practice on Saturday. It was kind of chaotic and irreverent, as kids usually are on Saturdays. The rehearsal went long and I was worried that the program would too. When I arrived at church Sunday morning it was a little chaotic in the chapel trying to help all the primary kids find their seats on the stand and trying to remind them to be reverent etc. We have a rather rowdy primary, so reverence is almost always an issue. But for some reason, they all sat quietly and none of them got up to go to the bathroom or get a drink.

I sat on the stand with the kids during the program. They all said their parts so well with no goofing around or mumbling or yelling into the microphone. They sang the songs beautifully. I don't think I've ever done or seen a primary program where the kids sang all the verses for all the songs, but ours did! I was so proud of them.

As I was sitting there on the stand and the kids were singing "The Family is of God" I started to get a little teary eyed. For some reason, hearing their sweet little voices sing the chorus of that song, "God gave us families to help us become what he wants us to be. This is how He shares His love. For the family is of God", touches my heart so deeply. Maybe it's because I've gotten to know these kids and I've seen the hardships that they endure at such tender ages. I've seen them hurt and I've seen them grow, and they always show such amazing faith. Many of them have "broken" families. Some have abusive family members. But whenever we talk about families being together forever, they all have strong testimonies and faith that they can be with their families forever.

There is one boy whose parents recently divorced. I was teaching a sharing time on eternal families and the temple and felt impressed to talk about divorced families. I shared my own experience of having divorced parents and of wondering what would happen to my family. I told them that even if their parents or members of their family have made choices leading them away from the church, they can choose to live worthy and go to the temple and that our Heavenly Father would bless them with an eternal family.
After the lesson, this young boy came up to me and put his arm around me and said,
"My parents are divorced too."
"I know", I said. "It's hard huh?"
"Yeah. But I'm gonna do what you said. I'm going to go to the temple and be with my family forever."
His faith was so pure and I was so grateful that I'd followed my prompting to talk about divorce. I think that all too often everything that is taught is all sunshine and skittles, but these kids' lives aren't always like that.

I'm grateful for my calling in primary. I'll admit, I really didn't want it at first. But I've been so blessed to serve these children and to get to know them. They teach me so much.

I love you Parkside Primary!