Shoes and Simplicity

Monday evening Kyle decided that he wanted to go on a walk.  He found his shoes, put them on and said "come on dad.  I go for walk."  I didn't see him do it but Don brought him in to me and I said that any 2 year old who puts on his shoes by himself certainly gets to go on a walk.  We didn't make it all the way around the block because it was pretty dark and there lots of noises Kyle wasn't  thrilled with.  The neighbor was banging on his a/c, there was a super loud motorcycle somewhere close by and there were lots of bug noises.  Kyle is not a great fan of bug noises.  When he wants to be picked up he says "hold you?" which is what I say to him when he holds his arms up to be picked up so he copies what I say.  I have been struggling with how to get him to be reverent in church, sit still so we can make it through the whole meeting without me having to take him out and how to get him to be more quiet and good during FHE and scripture and prayer.  I have been praying about it because it is really frustrating to have to take him out most Sundays even before we get to the sacrament.  A few times it was even during the opening song that I had to take him out and then he thinks he can just run around which is completely the opposite of what we want him to learn.  I end up taking him out so that I can take him into the teeny tiny mother's room where there is nowhere to run and I can  put him in one of the two recliners and keep him there even if he is fighting me. They have the meeting piped in so at least I can hear it and in there he is not bothering other people.  There have only been 2 Sundays where there were 2 sisters already in there nursing their babies and so that day we ended up in the nursery and there was no way to keep contained to a chair in there.  So after much frustration and prayer I felt prompted that the answer was that I needed to teach him how to pray. I also thought that he should only get to use his backpack as a reward for him sitting still on the bench and if he gets down he doesn't get his snacks or his toys.  I'm not trying to be the Gestapo and he does get to choose to sit on the bench, in between me and Don or sit on one of our laps. Either way he gets a choice and then he can have his car or goldfish as long as he is sitting still.  I have been very impressed and grateful at how well he is doing.  We made it through 2 weeks of church with out him getting taken out.  He folds his arms and kneels down for our family prayers even though he might not stay the whole time.  But there again, if he is not being reverent I pick him up and take him out of the room and hold him until the prayer is over.  Then at night I help him say  his own prayer.   He is doing very good and starts it off all by himself.  "Heavenly Father, day, mommy and daddy" and then I help him with a few other things.  He usually says amen about 6 times before it is time to say it.  We have always said family prayers, scriptures and FHE and he has always been there but he is usually driving everyone to distraction or hysterical laughing.  It is very challenging to have a meaningful FHE for the bigger kids with toodles running around and trying to ride horsey on everyone's legs.  I am grateful for the inspiration from Heavenly Father that helps me nurture my children. I have gotten several answers similar to that here recently in response to my pleadings for help with my kids.  Most of the answers are not typical parenting applications that the world would suggest but most are specific to prayers and scripture individually for each child.  Some would wonder how teaching/helping /encouraging a child to pray and read his scriptures would be more effective than making a child sit still for hours on end at home to practice being reverent or going over flash cards over and over for math help or studying and sitting with another child to get him to do his homework.  I fully believe in the scripture from Alma 31:5 that says "the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to that which was just-it had a more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword".  Sometimes it really is as simple as that.  I know that Heavenly Father will help us in our monumental task of raising my kids.