A 9-Year-Old's Testimony

Six years ago this summer I became a single mom. I had so many serious doubts about my ability to accomplish this feat. How could I teach my boys all they needed to learn to grow into strong men without a dad in their home? What would I do the first time one of them approached me with a serious problem? "I don't know anything about raising boys!" I thought. And raising them alone? Well, that just scared me.

But over the years I've learned that it wasn't as frightening as I had originally thought. And often I've realized that instead of me teaching them, they are teaching me. Take Tuesday night for instance. The boys and I were eating dinner together and I turned on this last General Conference in the computer. I love General Conference, but during this last session I was on a business trip in Southern California, and I missed most of it. So I was trying to catch up a bit and we were listening to the first talk from Saturday afternoon. It was Elder Oaks' talk on Testimony. My younger son finished eating before the rest of us (a miracle in itself) so I sent him to take a shower. Not long afterward my eldest said to me, "mom, I need to talk to you about something." Of course, when your child opens a conversation with that, the first thing you do is LISTEN. So I put the talk on pause and asked, "what's up?" Here's approximately how our conversation went:

B: "Well, I've been feeling this way for a long time now."
me: "What way, hon?"
B: "Like, when we've read the scriptures or when I was watching Conference with grandma last weekend... well, I keep hearing this voice in my head say to me 'how do you know this is true?' And it doesn't feel very good."
(By this time tears were streaming down his face. I had to bite my lip not to join him. I knew he needed me to be strong and help him find the answers. But it was pretty darn hard.)
me: "Does it make you feel sad?"
B: "Yeah, because, you know, I know the church is true and everything, but I keep having those thoughts, 'Well, how do you know?'"
me: "How do we know the scriptures are true?"
B: "Um, because of the priesthood?"
me: "Well, it's even simpler than that. Here, why don't you read something for me."
(I got my Book of Mormon out for him and turned to -- guess where -- Moroni 10:3-5.)
me: "Read these three verses out loud for me. K?"
(He did. I stopped him at every important point. Read. Ponder. Pray. We talked about what all that means and then read Moroni's promise.)
me: "Do you want to try that tonight?"
(He nodded and then climbed into my lap. Okay, I let a couple tears escape.)
me: "Know what, B? You are amazing. You're only 9 years old. Wanna know how old I was when I asked these questions?"
B: "How old were you, mom?"
me: (I paused so he would look at me, and then I said) "I was 21."
(He couldn't believe it. So I asked him to remember what I did when I was 21 years old. He thought for a minute and then ventured, "you went on a mission?"
me: "Yep. And I realized that if I was going to spend 18 months preaching the gospel of Christ, I'd better know for sure if what I was teaching was true. I had always known the church was true because I was taught by good parents, just like you. But I'd never really asked to find out for myself until right before I went on a mission. And you're only NINE! You are so amazing, son. Heavenly Father is so proud of you."

My son was almost literally beaming for the rest of the evening. He couldn't wipe the smile off his face all night.

My Patriarchal Blessing tells me I'll bring some of the choice spirits to earth. Boy did that ever come true! I am so blessed to have these little boys in my life! I can't imagine my life without them.