paper bag

The second day of school, I heard Kynlee working on something in her room. A few minutes later she came out and asked me if I had a small picture of the family, one that would fit in a paper bag. I asked her what she was working on, and she explained that for homework they were supposed to put three items in a bag that described them or that were important to them. She told me, "I have a Book of Mormon, a picture of Christ, and now I need a picture of our family." Then she said with a smile "I want everyone to be Mormon."

Pretty cool right? It made me smile, but I admit I was also hesitant. I tend to, and probably foolishly so, like people to get to know me before I bring up my religion. I worry that the name brings negative feelings, because there are a lot of false, strange statements out there. But I figure if they think I'm awesome first :) then they will think maybe being a Mormon is not so bad. When Kynlee showed me her bag, in my brain I thought, "Really? First week of school your going to let everyone know we're Mormon?" Isn't that terrible? I kept my thoughts to myself and let Kynlee go for it.

Now, two months later Kynlee brings up at the dinner table questions about our religion. Her friends in the cul-de-sac were telling her what Mormons believe, things she hadn't heard of, and she was getting confused. In kindergarten, her best friend told her Mormons were not Christian. We explained to Kynlee that Christians were people that believed in Christ, and that lots of different churches were Christian, including ours. She explained that to her friend the next day, but her friend insisted Mormons were not. The same thing came up recently with the cul-de-sac friends. Kynlee told us she tried to explain to them we were Christian, but they kept trying to tell her what she believed. Heavy things for a six and seven year old. Kynlee started feeling like maybe she didn't want to be different.

She's a good girl, I think her thoughts are golden and she'll figure it all out. One of her favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is one Michael showed her, and since then she has wanted to read it every time we do family scriptures. 2 Nephi 32:8-9. I'm going to type it all out, because it is good.

"And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

In just over a month, Kynlee will turn eight and be baptized. I'd like her to feel confident about her decision before it happens. I also think it's time that mom started showing as much confidence as her daughter and did a little explaining to the neighbors so we can all understand each other :)