A Tribute to My Parents

I have tremedous respect and love for both of you. The more experience I have in life the more I realized just how amazing you are. I could not have asked for better examples to teach me about life, spirituality, relationships, respect, who I am and who I can be.
Growing up I always loved seeing you express affection to one another. I don't remember any demening or harsh word, not to us or each other, but my memories of you are filled with images of tenderness, love, and self-sacrifice. Home has always been a place of acceptance, tolerance, understanding, joy, excitment, closeness and love. I love to see you smile and hear your laugh and your humor.
I have never heard you say anything bad about anyone, be judgemental or be involved in gossip. Even at times when someones actions were directly impacting you and our family. Your example showed me deep, unconditional respect for others and yourself. The ultimate way of respecting others is to uplift them with your word and honor their name and to accept people who have different opinions, way of doing things, ways of thinking, ect. This is so important to me. I meet people everyday who have differences and those differences are so wonderful, they teach me new ways to think and new ways to do things. If we can't open our mind up to new ideas how can we improve, grow and expand our knowledge and how can we understand others and show them charity.
You have always taught through example, frugality, self-dicipline and hardwork. These three habits have helped me along in life in so many ways and I highly value them. Without these I don't believe that we are able to accomplish as much with the time we have and it makes life that much more meaningful as well as giving us more self-respect.

All of these are principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ that are given to us to help us overcome the natural man and find true joy. You have lived your testimony of the principles of the gosple and seeing the effect of this in your life and my own is the most wonderful gift you have given me.

I want to live your example the way you do, especially as a mother starting my own family and I feel that I fall short in many ways. I often think of you and remember your example. Thank you.