Repentance

In Relief Society today, the teacher shared this story about her 15 year old son, Ben.

Ben got hired on by his father to work in his insurance office filing papers, etc.

Ben was overwhelmed with the task, and started to fall behind. Not wanting to fail/admit he was over his head, he started to file some of the papers under the filing cabinet, behind the filing cabinet…

It didn’t take long before everyone in the office was having the problem of missing files. Ben’s brother in law was the one who had the uncomfortable situation of discovering what Ben had been doing, and had to report the situation to the boss – aka Ben’s dad.

Ben and his mom and dad had a sit down discussion, in which the situation was unearthed and analyzed.

Ben didn’t get punished for what he’d done.

Instead, his parents had him repent. They took this situation not to punish and belittle quite a large offense, but to tie this mistake into the Gospel and explain how this is a situation in which Ben needed to call upon the power of repentance.

Ben had to apologize to everyone in the office who had been affected by his filing shortcuts.

He had to return the pay he received for when he was not doing the job he was being paid for.

He had to find every piece of paper he stuffed behind the filing cabinets, file them correctly, and did not get paid for this work – as he should have done it in the first place.

I was really touched by this story and how the parents handled this situation. They didn’t punish Ben. They simply taught him the power of repentance, and how it is applicable in all aspects of our life.

I can guaruntee that Ben learned a lot more from apoligizing to an entire office of people, than he would have from being grounded. Or losing his phone. Or being spanked, for a younger child.

I told Trevor this story, and he liked it as much as I did. We want to adopt this with our future kids. To never punish, but to teach repentance in all aspects. The Savior was the greatest teacher, and he definitely taught through repentance, not through punishment.

I think this story was so poignant to us both, since there are multiple situations Trevor and I have found friends/family in lately, where we’ve wondered “how do you handle this situation?” You want the best for those you love – and it’s not through indulgance or strict punishment.

This story really put to light for me that in every situation, if the child is taught repentance and the steps of repentance – they are not indulged nor punished – but given the power to fix the situation, they will truly learn and be empowered to make better decisions in the future.

So, the Schauerhamer home will be one of repentance, not punishment.

Love,

Brittney