Sharing Experience

In Elder Bradley D. Foster's October 2015 General Conference talk, It's Never Too Early and It's Never Too Late, he shares a story about a young man name Pablo. When Pablo was nine, his father pulled him aside and told him,

Pablo, I was nine once too. Here are some things you may come across. You’ll see people cheating in school. You might be around people who swear. You’ll probably have days when you don’t want to go to church. Now, when these things happen—or anything else that troubles you—I want you to come and talk to me, and I’ll help you get through them.

 When Elder Foster met Pablo and heard what Pablo's father had said, he went home and arranged to meet with his children, some of whom had grown up and had children of their own. He told them something similar:

Your mother and I want you to know that we were your age once. We were 31, with a small family. We have an idea of what you might encounter. It might be a financial or health challenge. It may be a crisis of faith. You may just get overwhelmed with life. When these things happen, we want you to come and talk to us. We’ll help you get through them. Now, we don’t want to be in your business all the time, but we want you to know that we are always in your corner.

One way parents can teach their children is by sharing their life experience and by being able to relate to their children's problems and feelings. Parents don't need to know everything to be good parents, they just have to be willing to share what they've learned.

Elder Foster concluded with his testimony of Jesus Christ, who lived a mortal life so He could say "I’ve been where you are, I know what comes next, and I’ll help you through it." I add my testimony that I know that Jesus knows exactly what we're going through and how we feel. He has experienced it all Himself in the garden of Gethsemane. Our Savior knows what we're going through because He's been through it Himself, and we can always turn to Him for help and to learn from His experience.