“They Had Many Children Who Did Grow Up and Began to Wax Strong in Years”

Bryan Richards

Neal A. Maxwell

"Experience in decision-making can be learned at home, too. A child's determination to spend his allowance foolishly on some object of predictably short-term worth, may be wise to honor, so that the child can experience, firsthand, the consequences of his choice. Learning to assess 'the consequences of what one wants' can be taught when the parent can still insulate children from gross or serious error and yet allow controlled contact with reality. The time often comes when, as told in The Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 1:29) youth 'became for themselves' and would no longer accept parental counsel. Continuing parental access to offspring for counseling even in the latter's adulthood depends on a climate of trust which reflects the granting of a gradually increasing area of agency, beginning with early childhood." (A More Excellent Way, p. 132)

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