Don't Spank Me!

"There are some years in our lives that we would not want to live again. But even these years will pass away, and the lessons learned will be a future blessing."

- Marjorie Pay Hinckley

As I was out shopping this week I saw a young boy with his mother. He was crying and carring on something fierce! "Don't callllll! Don't calllllll!" He kept wailing. She was on the phone to someone, her husband, I assume.

Although you might not think it, it reminded me of Kai and made me smile. Kai was the most vocal of our children when it came to being reprimanded. Even though he was the baby and we were the most lenient with him you would have thought we were amputating a arm whenever the time came for him to get a spanking or reprimanded in any way.

I'll share just one story.

I remember distinctly walking out of sacrament meeting one Sunday soon after Emil had been called as Bishop in Elizabeth City. I was really struggling with getting Kai and Noah to behave. Kai was only 3 and Noah only 7. They were so rowdy! I could not get them to sit still to save my life and as was typical Kai was the instigator. I'd get them settled and then Kai would stick his tongue out at Noah and the gauntlet had been thrown down, Noah would jab Kai and round and round it went.

Sundays were so hard as a young mother! I had warned Kai endless times that if he didn't straighten up he and I were going out for an attitude adjustment so finally we did. All the way from the front row of the chapel to the door he wailed,

"DON'T SPANK ME! DON'T SPANK ME!"

It's one of those things I can look at now and laugh about but then I wished I could be swallowed up in a black hole.

I miss my son but I am so thankful for the time, love and joy we had together in this life, even the trying times. I wouldn't trade this mortal experience for the anything in the world. In it,

I have learned so much.

"Think about your particular assignment at this time in your life. It may be to get an education, it may be to rear children, it may be to be a grandparent, it may be to care for an relieve the suffering of someone you love, it may be to do a job in the most excellent way possible, it may be to support someone who has a difficult assignment of their own. Our assignments are varied and they change from time to time. Don't take them lightly. Give them your full heart and energy. Do them with enthusiasm. Do whatever you have to do this week with your whole heart and soul. To do less than this will leave you with an empty feeling."

- Marjorie Pay Hinckley