Perhaps I've gone a bit too far...

I always knew this day would come...

I would look around the Sunday evening dinner table and see myself as through my mother's eyes... only, the 11 year old me would be my daughter.

Tonight... it happened.

Yesterday's discovery of the lies told to a teacher came back to haunt my dear little Hailey. After reporting a proper practicing schedule to her band teacher, we came to find that she was delinquent... a lot.

I found myself thinking a lot about repentance since I discovered the problem. I wanted to teach my daughter a principle of truth, and encourage her to change her behavior. I didn't want to be mad.

Repentance is one of the first principles of the gospel and is
essential to our temporal and eternal happiness.
It is much more than just acknowledging wrongdoings.
It is a change of mind and heart that gives us a fresh view about God, about ourselves, and about the world.
It includes turning away from sin and
turning to God for forgiveness.
It is motivated by love for God
and the sincere desire to obey His commandments.

Although it hardly seems fair, a certain amount of repentance needs to take place for Hailey to become a better person. There were steps that she needed to take.

1) Acknowledge the wrong - Hailey needed to identify that she had done something wrong. She needed to feel sorrow for her choice, and a desire to fix the situation. Her lack of practicing was an issue, but more important was her bearing false witness. She lied... We needed to fix that.

2) Apologize and Ask for Forgiveness - Once she realized that we needed to fix the problem, she had to go about telling the teacher she was sorry. I sent an e-mail to the teacher, informing her that we had found the discrepancy in the practice times. I also informed Hailey that it was her responsibility to say she was sorry to her teacher.

3) Right the wrong - Hailey will now be practicing every morning: Monday-Friday at 6:30am, Saturdays at 7:30am and Sundays at 9am, so that mom can supervise proper practicing procedure. This will take place until all claimed practice time is made up. We also explained to Hailey that her grade may be affected because of the information I sent to her teacher. There are always consequences.

4) Hailey will need to go to her Heavenly Father and ask for forgiveness as well. Unfortunately, this is not something I can help her with. No amount of discipline on my part can help her see her way through this process. The best I can hope for is that she understands how much her Heavenly Father loves her, and that he wants for her to be honest. He wants her to be happy, and to tell the truth. This can only be accomplished when she understands that she has made a mistake and learns from it, and

5) Never does it again. The most vital of the repentance process, we are to change our heart so we have no more desire to perform the wrong.

As a parent, it was very hard for me to go through this process with her tonight. I'm not looking forward to the daily french horn practicing, but, as her mother, I will sit by her and support her.

DJ told me not to use the mom-ism comment "This hurts me more than it hurts you." I never really believed it until tonight, but I didn't say it. I watched my daughter weep. She felt so bad. My heart yearned to forgive her all, but I knew that it was the better part to let her go through this, and to stand by her side.

In Mosiah 4:3 it says:

And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words
the Spirit of the Lord came upon them,
and they were filled with joy,
having received a remission of their sins,
and having peace of conscience,
because of the exceeding faith
which they had in Jesus Christ...

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to repent of my wrong-doings, and I am so blessed that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is there for my children, and for me. I know that joy can truly come when we follow the Savior.