Ownership

I've been having a conversation with my son the last 2 days. This is really an ongoing conversation, but the topic has once again reared it's ugly head. There seems to be a growing confusion about ownership. What is yours and who's responsible for giving it to you. 

It always starts with something that your child believes he/she owns. For example their cell phone if they purchased it. Ok, great. You bought the phone. Do they own the data plan? The electricity in the house to give access to the data and to charge the phone? Nope. It's pretty much just a hunk of useless plastic and parts until it is given access to power. So is that their phone to do with whatever pleases them? No, they don't own it. 

Next troubling thing that I heard when trying to help this son through challenges he is having and him thinking that I am "judging him" and want to turn him into me. He said; "I let you be who you are." Well, here again we have a flawed sense of reality. Can a child "let" their parents do anything? Do they have control or "ownership" of them? Do your children provide for you? No. 

I believe this is one of the number one problems we face today. The fundamental understanding that you are not your own. There is a parent child relationship that involves respect, trust, and obedience. The hard truth of the matter is that children own nothing. They don't own the clothes on their back, the food they eat, the shelter over their head, the televisions in the house. Not one thing. They are not the decision makers of the family. Even if they have a job. They couldn't have gotten the job without the help of their parents for supporting their needs until that time. There is a debt incurred. They can start paying rent, but they still don't have full "ownership" privileges and never fully pay back their debt. They are renters, not owners.

People get confused in these rolls in their employment as well with boss/employee relationships. 

As I was on my walk this morning I realized how everything really does testify of the Savior. Families are a true pattern of our heavenly home. We are given the perfect environment for us to learn our dependance upon God for everything. We own nothing. We have a debt to be paid that we cannot. We have the same things to learn about our relationship with Heavenly Father; respect, trust, and obedience. People are running around all the time crying out that God is tyrannical and a dictator because there are commandments to be kept and therefore expected to "change." We have a resistance to rules and to changing. We have been given families to practice.

In Heleman 12:7 we find out that we are even below the dust of the earth. Why? Because even the dust is obedient to God- while we, His children, are not. So dust is higher than us. Mosiah teaches us further about our nothingness;

Mosiah 4:11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

Even I, the parent of my children, did not create them. They were formed in my belly, but I was the receptacle of that miraculous gift, not the creator. The relationship is a type and a shadow of our relationship to Heavenly Father. 

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Jeremiah 1:  5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee...

Even I, the parent of my children, own nothing. Everything I have is because my Heavenly Father gave it to me. The very air I breath. The food I eat, the water I drink, the job my husband has, the house I live in, everything that makes me good. All was made possible because He created us and makes the rain to fall to grow the food, give intelligence to man to create, give strength to overcome, etc...

1 Corinthians 4:7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

John 3:27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

We must acknowledge that we are given everything and be grateful for it. How is gratitude made manifest? In keeping the commandments. That is how we show our gratitude for the things we have been given. 

What I wanted my son to understand is that everything I do is to help him be the best he can. We are here to overcome not succumb to our weaknesses. I am prayerful and thoughtful in parenting in the Lord's way. There are rules to follow and that is where love is. In the boundaries. In the order. The pattern has been established for wisdom and order in all things. Boundaries break down pride. Pride is our biggest enemy to becoming perfected through Christ by commandments, ordinances, and covenants. 

Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.