Teaching by the spirit

I was really touched by the fireside talk last night. I was especially touched by the reference to Doctrine and Covenants 50:17-18.

17 Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to ^apreach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, doth he ^bpreach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way?

18 And if it be by some other way it is not of God.

That really started me to thinking. I thought of how I teach my children. Do I even know HOW to teach by the spirit?

I want to teach by the spirit. When I was on my mission, my mission president would teach me by the spirit. Whenever he needed to let me know of something I needed to "work on," he would take me into his office and compliment me. He would let me know that he believed in me, that he thought I was a wonderful missionary. Then, when I was feeling good about myself, he would tell me how I needed to improve myself. But I didn't feel horrible about myself, I felt hopeful about my possibility to change. I remember how wonderful it was to experience that.

I want that for my children. I want them to feel safe, hopeful, and willing to change. I don't want them to be prideful and not willing to be taught and not wanting to change. I need to be that way myself.

I am so afraid of failure that I am hesitant to let my children fail. But that is actually hurting them (and me).

But there is hope. I can NEVER give up, NEVER surrender. It is like learning to walk. I need to be okay when they fail, when I fail. I didn't get upset when they fell while learning to walk, but I get mad at them now because I feel like it is too costly for them to make their own choices. HOW WRONG I AM!!!!! It will never be less costly than now. If I wait until they are teenagers for them to make their own choices, they may make some SERIOUSLY costly mistakes.

Do you ever feel totally overwhelmed by parenting? I do. But I must trust in the Lord. There is no other way!