Ah, to have a conscience

Lately, the boys have all been showing that they have a conscience. Let me demonstrate by three stories, each about one of the boys.

We'll start with Eli.

Eli has a habit of saying naughty words. The other two boys do occasionally but they know they get in trouble if they say them so they limit their potty words. Eli, though, hasn't quite learned how to follow his brothers examples (and of course the other two laugh incessantly when Eli says them...just as long as it's not them, right?).

This morning the boys came in a told me that Eli was saying naughty words. I called Eli in and asked him if he remembered what happened to little boys that want to have potty mouths. He said no. I reminded him that when we use potty words our mouth gets dirty like the potty and just like we have to clean the potty when it's dirty, we have to clean our mouths when we say naughty words and he would get his mouth washed out with soap.

About an hour later, I was in the shower and Will came tattling that Eli was saying a naughty word again (it wasn't that naughty). I told him to tell Mike or to wait until I got out of the shower. A few minutes later Mike comes into the bathroom and asks, "Did you tell Eli to wash his mouth out with soap?" Apparently, when Will went to tell Mike, Eli decided to run away and ran out the door only to change his mind when he saw all the rain. So instead he ran by Mike and said, "I'll do it myself." Mike, who was running when the previous conversation occurred between me and Eli, had no idea what was happening and followed Eli into the bathroom to see Eli washing his own mouth out with soap. Awesome!

Next up is Isaac.

One night when we were putting the boys to bed Isaac was laying on the ground next to Mike and said, "You know Dad, you don't know everything about me." Mike replied, "Oh, yeah? What don't I know?" His response makes Mike and me laugh every time we think about it. "Well, you know how we aren't supposed to play on the Elliptical? Every time you are not in the room, I get on it. See, you didn't know that did you?" He obviously hasn't learned how to keep his transgressions to himself.

And finally, Will.

For this story you will need to know two things first. First, in our house the boys are not allowed in the pantry or cupboards without asking. Generally, if they ask, they can have food. But I don't like them eating whenever they want or whatever they want. Mike and I are in charge of the candy in our house and decide when the boys can have some--even at Halloween. We are mean.

Second, this week the boys were being inappropriate in regards to their bodies, which I'm sure is common in a house full of boys. So that night for scriptures we read in Corinthians about our bodies not being ours and how our bodies are a temple. (It seems like we have this discussion a lot in our house--again, all boys?). I asked them if they thought Heavenly Father would be happy with the way they were using their bodies and they said, "No." So, we talked about how in their prayers that night they should ask Heavenly Father for forgiveness.

Ok, now we can move on to the story about Will.

At the baby shower this past week two very thoughtful friends included in the gifts presents for the boys--gum and skittles. These are two of my boy's favorite treats. They chose to eat the gum first so we put the skittles in the pantry for a later time.

The next day I went to pick up Will from the bus stop. Like normal, I went to open his backpack to see what things he did during the day and to see if there were any papers I needed to know about. Will took the backpack from me and said, "Um, I think we should wait until we get home to open my backpack." I was really confused and asked him why. He started stammering and said, "Well, I just think we should wait." The kid was sweating bullets. I asked him what was wrong, "Did you have to change a red clip today and get a note sent home? What's the matter? Why don't you want me to open your backpack?" Finally he just shrugged, handed over the backpack and said, "I wanted to share with Carson but we only ate two each and then we knew it was wrong and felt bad and so we forgave God." I opened the backpack and found his bag of skittles. I was trying really hard not to laugh. I could just imagine poor Will eating his first skittle and starting to feel bad. Then he eats the second and finally tells his friend, "This is wrong. We need to forgive God" I asked if they prayed in class or something and he said that he and Carson just said a quiet prayer on the bus.

I couldn't punish him for that! I told him that he was right, and explained that he need to ask Heavenly Father to forgive him, not the other way around, and asked if he would try and deceive me again. He said no, and I took the skittles inside, gave a few to him and his brothers, and put the rest away.

If only we all had such a desire to do what is right! I hope they continue to be honest and try to make amends. Is it any wonder that I love these little boys?