Discussion Questions
• What can you do to strengthen your relationship with your parents?
• How can we show respect to our parents and grandparents even when their beliefs or opinions are different than ours?
Excerpt from "Be Thou an Example" by President Thomas S. Monson, April 2005 General Conference:
My, how your parents love you, how they pray for you. Honor them.
How do you honor your parents? I like the words of William Shakespeare: “They do not love that do not show their love.” There are countless ways in which you can show true love to your mothers and your fathers. You can obey them and follow their teachings, for they will never lead you astray. You can treat them with respect. They have sacrificed much and continue to sacrifice in your behalf.
Be honest with your mother and your father. One reflection of such honesty with parents is to communicate with them. Avoid the silent treatment. The clock ticks more loudly, its hands move more slowly when the night is dark, the hour is late, and a precious daughter has not yet come home. If you are detained, make a telephone call: “Mom, Dad, we’re OK. Just stopped for something to eat. Don’t worry; we’re fine. Be home soon.”
A number of years ago, while attending a youth gathering at the Clarkston, Utah, cemetery, where each of the group viewed the memorial which marks the grave of Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, I noticed another marker—a small stone in which was inscribed a name and this poignant verse: “A light from our household is gone; a voice we loved is stilled. A place is vacant in our hearts that never can be filled.”
To read the full talk, click here.