Hey! This semester of college I decided to keep another blog to make the information that I am learning more meaningful to me. Our teacher asked us if we would read our notebooks after 50 years...my thoughts were "I thought we had a bonfire to burn all of our school notebooks when we graduate to celebrate!" Sooo obviously a notebook isn't as meaningful to me as a blog where I can express my feelings openly and receive feedback from other interested readers such as yourselves.
These blogs this semester will be centered around parenting! Wohoo! I'm not a parent so i'm looking forward to comments from promom's who really know their stuff and can tell me what does and does not work.
This week in class we learned the concept of Doctrines, Principals, and Applications. These are three very different concepts that come together to possibly create something great. We tell kids all the time "no, don't do that", "take out the trash", "clean your room". We've all been on the receiving line of these chores, "to do lists", and commands. We commonly found ourselves asking the question "but mom, whyyy" *in a slightly whiney prepubescent tone*. All of those requests/commands from the parent are known as applications. The answer to why we need to do those things as kids is very important. There is always a deeper meaning to the application. These are known as doctrines and principals.
Doctrines and principals are more easily understood in a gospel setting, and they are what most of us are familiar with so lets start there. Take the sacrament for example. The doctrine of the sacrament is that we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ available to us and that He died for our sins. The principal connected to that is that we believe in the Gospel and this saving ordinance. The application is that we go and take some water and bread and partake of this sacrament every sunday. Without the doctrine and the principals which answer the questions "why" and "what" the application is merely the action of eating bread and drinking some water. Those actions have no meaning.
Doctrines and principals are the concepts that become written upon our hearts. When we are parenting the chore of having our kids do the laundry or clean their room does not become written upon their heart...but the doctrine that God gave us families and the plan of salvation here on the earth and the principal that each family member has his or her divine role to carry out is what becomes the driving force.
The application might change, but the principals won't. If children can understand "why" they are doing something and see the greater purpose the application becomes easier to accomplish. Don't let the application be disconnected from the principal or emptiness will follow.
