Being true and faithful

An idea that is gaining traction in parenting and educational philosophy is the idea that teens shouldn't start school until later in the morning, that their natural biorhythms change with the onset of puberty making them more inclined to go to sleep late, require more sleep and awake later. I have seen this change in my children, watched my natural early riser, awake-with-the-sun sons turn into seeming vampires who want to talk and play long into the night and sleep the day away. I think the observational science in this philosophy is sound.

BUT

We know differently. We have been counseled in the scriptures to awake early, retire early to our beds and that doing so will bring blessings. We have been counseled to encourage our teens to enroll in early morning seminary when that is what is available in your geographical area.

For most of my adult life I have hungered to be a seminary teacher. For the past four years, DH has had that blessing and it wasn't my season and that was difficult for me to watch from the sidelines. And now, we have that calling together, to teach our boys and 37 other high school students the gospel through the Book of Mormon at 6 o'clock every week day morning.

It takes a lot for a teen to work against biorhythms, to fight against their natural inclinations, their desire to follow social media into the night and sleep into the day. It takes a lot for teens to show up and sit, in any semblance of alertness. But they do, they have, in my class and thousands others throughout the church because they and their parents want to be true and faithful.

It is easy to get huffy when students are tardy. It is easy to take offense if they sleep in class or leave early. Maybe I will feel less charitable at different times during my teaching, but for now, I have hope. I have this great desire to bring the Spirit, to teach whoever is there, however long they are there so that, if at all possible, they can leave the classroom armed with power to wrestle with their demons and the demons of the world, to wrestle with doubt and find faith, to send them forth with as much light as I can muster.

I have witnessed the power of seminary. I have experienced the blessings of early to bed, early to rise. I have felt the special, tangible spirit of revelation found more thickly in the quiet morning hours with study and prayer, reflection and learning. There is power in being true and faithful.