Teach Your Children Well, and They Will Teach You

It was an interesting day yesterday... Christina was released as the Primary president after nearly four years in the role (I think this is the longest I've ever known anyone to serve in that position, at least in any of the wards that I've attended). I remember back when Christina first joined the Church; she was given the opportunity to be a teacher in Primary early on, and thus, since 2001, she has been actively involved as a Primary teacher, counselor in Primary, or Primary President.

With her release on Sunday, she had the chance to join me in Gospel Doctrine class for the first time in at least 8 years. I remember her saying as we were gearing up for the release that she was worried that she would not fit in with Gospel Doctrine or Relief Society, since her entire point of reference to the church was through Primary. Well, it was amusing to hear her say, as she was sitting with me through Gospel Doctrine (we were discussing the ways that people often choose to leave the church through such things as being offended and through finding faults and rationalizing why we do certain things)... she leaned over to me and said "hey, this is just like what we covered in Primary". As I smiled and gave her a hug, I thought for a bit that, really, those lessons that we teach the kids in Primary *are* the Gospel, and that usually, the stuff we talk about in the "adult classes" are really just variations on the theme. Sure, we put more adult language around them, and we go into greater discussion, but really, the principles we learn in Primary *are* the whole of the Gospel, and to that end, Christina has spent the better part of eight years helping teach those lessons to the children of the ward, including our children.

Anyway, I just wanted to say how very proud I am of Christina and how much time and effort she put into her calling as Primary President. She was terrific in that role, and I'm so very happy that she got to have the experience. I'm also happy that, at least for a brief period of time, I will get to have her sitting with me in Gospel Doctrine class, something that we have not experienced together in close to 8 years (LOL!). We'll see how long that lasts, as I don't think that the Ward will let he sit still for very long :). Still for the time being, as a friend of our pointed out, "Christina has spiritually fed so many for so many years, now it's time for her to step back and allow others to spiritually feed her for awhile" :).