Maxwell found his voice...

...in the middle of Sunday School yesterday. He was awake for most of church and he was squawking and smiling at people. It was pretty funny but it made me realize we are heading into that hard time with a baby at church. I don't like being a hall mom. sigh...

I've been thinking about the idea of 'raising the bar' lately, and yesterday a high councilor gave a talk about this topic. I looked up 2 talks that he referred to.Elder Perry's Raise the Bar talk was a good reminder that it is okay for me as a parent to have high expectations of my kids with standards and appearance.

Once you reach those minimum standards, shouldn’t you try to keep raising the bar? I ask you the same question I asked my son many years ago: “If you don’t raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?” My challenge to you is to recognize that a minimum standard exists—and you must reach it to serve as a full-time missionary—but don’t stop there. The greatest generation of missionaries will not reach its full potential unless it keeps raising the bar.

Elder Ballard's "Greatest Generation of Missionaries" talk reminded me that I need to expect more of myself too, as a church member, a mother, a teacher, a missionary. I need to raise the bar on my own spiritual preparation so I can be an example to my children.

We need worthy, qualified, spiritually energized missionaries who, like Helaman’s 2,000 stripling warriors, are “exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity” and who are “true at all times in whatsoever thing they [are] entrusted” (Alma 53:20).

Listen to those words, my young brethren: valiant, courage, strength, active, true. We don’t need spiritually weak and semicommitted young men. We don’t need you to just fill a position; we need your whole heart and soul. We need vibrant, thinking, passionate missionaries who know how to listen to and respond to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t a time for spiritual weaklings. We cannot send you on a mission to be reactivated, reformed, or to receive a testimony. We just don’t have time for that. We need you to be filled with “faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God” (D&C 4:5).