Early last week I read parenting authors, Michael and Debi Pearl's letters to their children. Michael wrote to his sons and Debi to the daughters. They contained a lot of counsel on picking a marriage partner and raising a righteous family. I was impressed and wondered if I could write such nice letters to my own children. Then, for Sunday School I read the words of Alma given to his sons. The chapters were yet another inspirational message from father to sons. Then, in sacrament meeting the 14 year old girl who lives across the street from us shared the story about how when her Dad died a month ago, she found a can where he had sealed up a letter to be opened when she was married. It had been written when she was just a little girl. She said she was sure that the church leader who decided to have parents write these letters all those years ago was inspired. They had read the letter at his funeral and now, this letter is the great treasure and link she has to her father to carry her through the rest of her teenage years. Anyway, it occurred to me that with all this repetition on a theme, that perhaps I really do need to write a few letters myself.
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We write letters for Christmas/New Year's, Valentine's (because who said that had to be only a romantic holiday?) and their birthdays. I write a lot in my journal about how they are growing and changing and since I type my journal, I print out the parts that concern them and put it in their scrapbooks to read. Lately, Justin has written letters to our kids each month on the day of the month that they were born (11th and 20th) (there's a link on my blog to his letters). I like that we do that because even though Jonah's only 3 now, I've already found that I'm less verbally loving to him--as if he "should know that by now" or else I'm using my loving words quota up on two kids faster than on one kid. Whatever. I love the letters thing because it's a good way to get down how you feel about your kids right then. And it's a precious resource for them later. And I keep a copy myself (it's all typed) just in case a wound up teenager decides to do something rash..... there would still be something there for later.
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