Heavenly Father gave us plants, trees, and flowers

I've been in the Nursery at church the last few weeks with Megan and Isaac because I'm trying to get Isaac used to Nursery for when he is 18 months -- next month. Isaac would probably be fine if I left him there but I technically can't do that till next month and there are so many kids in there that I'm sure they could use an extra hand. However, I think it's in Megan's best interest that I am NOT there but she has been thrilled with my presence. She usually only cries for 5 minutes after I leave as long as one of the women hold her for a while. But I hope she will feel more secure when Isaac is there with her.

The Nursery lesson a couple weeks ago was: Heavenly Father gave us plants, trees, and flowers. We went on a little walk outside and looked at all His creations and expressed how thankful we were for them. A couple days later, Rex and I took the kids on a walk in the neighborhood and I reviewed with Megan (and James) that Heavenly Father and Jesus made all the plants for us to make the earth beautiful and give us food to eat. James said in his dramatic way, "That's crazy! Heavenly Father and Jesus didn't make the plants!" So I dropped the subject instead of arguing with him. But a couple days after that, James pointed out at the park that Heavenly Father gave us all the plants and trees and flowers. So he really had listened!

Maybe they even listen when we read the children's scriptures to them every evening! I know James is very attentive during the parts we try to hurry through, like Stephen getting killed by the Pharisees or Paul getting stoned for instance. But they usually seem bored and often don't even look at the pictures.

When we were trying to explain to James about choosing good friends, we did not mention Joesiah by name, but we tried to make him understand that some kids at school do bad things or say mean things and we shouldn't copy them. We can be nice to them, but we should try to play with kids who are nicer and make us feel good. This was over a month ago, but he constantly learns bad things from Joesiah and we have to teach him not to say or do those things. James is putting two and two together and realizing Joesiah isn't the best friend he thought he was. Unfortunately, James went too far in his conclusions and said the other day, "Joesiah says bad things; he's mean; he's a bad boy."

I tried to explain that yes, he does bad things, but that doesn't make him a bad person. His parents probably don't understand the same way we do about choosing the right. WE can choose the right because we know what the right way is. And maybe when Joesiah and others see us doing the right thing, they will want to copy us and do the right thing too. But we can't make them.

We come across this kind of topic a lot. It's hard for little kids to understand that just because someone else's parents let them do things, especially things that are against the rules of the establishment we are at, doesn't mean it is okay. If their parents let them break the rules, that's for their parents to deal with. But as James' parents, we will not allow our own kids to break the rules.