A Symbiotic Relationship

I have to call some local businesses for PTA this week. I am co-chair of the spring fundraiser and we are going to ask some local businesses if they are willing to match a portion of what we earn to help boost our earnings towards a new playground. I am not excited about doing it. I don’t like asking for things. I don’t have a problems giving things. I guess it is just harder for me to receive. It is humbling. This has tied into something else I have been thinking about. My kids don’t need me as much as I need them. I always thought the story went that you brought children into the world and they need you to feed, clothe, and care for them in order to survive. I am the giver and they are the receiver. When I was pregnant I felt like the children were parasites feeding off of me to grow and develop healthy bodies while I dwindled in health. I think in the eternal scheme of things, it is the other way around. I need my kids in order to achieve exaltation. I need them to help me perfect myself. It is a little like being told that the world is round and not flat. When they talk in relief society about what kinds of service we can give others, I am thinking to myself, “That is all I do all day every day!” I do give my children service by maintaining their physical needs. I never thought of it in the reverse scheme of theme. It is a symbiotic relationship where I help them with little things while they help me with big things in return. We both benefit. I know it is part of Heavenly Father’s grand plan for us to come to earth to gain bodies and have families so other spirits can gain bodies, but I think it is a two-fer. They get a body and we as parents get Christlike attributes. I had been thinking about this for awhile and it was reiterated as the spiritual thought at our presidency meeting last week. One sister quoted a professor from BYU who teaches marriage and family relation classes. He said, we don’t come to earth to get bodies, but to have families so we can develop the 199 Christlike attributes he has found in the scriptures. I saw a reality TV show a few years ago where parents donated their kids to people who thought they were ready to have a family. As I watched it, I as a parent would never let my children be taken care of the way some of these people took care of them. I think that is the way Heavenly Father must feel as he lets us borrow his children so we can raise them and learn to be more Christlike. It is a humbling thought that we are the receivers and not the givers. What are they going to teach me today? Maybe something that will make it easier for me to make those PTA phone calls, please?