This last week we talked about mothers staying in or working outside the home. I’m extremely passionate about this subject and will state first that these are my opinions and views and I hope it doesn’t offend anyone. First I strongly, passionately believe and know that being a mother is the most important, essential, glorious role in all of life. There is truly nothing of greater significance and importance. As a woman there is no career or amount of money that can compare to the joy, purpose and necessity of raising your own children and of being a mother. I do believe God has given each of us man and woman roles that we are responsible for fulfilling in order for his plan to function and be carried out as it was meant to be. I don’t believe that Gods essential responsibilities given to us go away or are justified for us not fulfill just because of apparent circumstance or for any other reasons. I understand that unfortunately in society today we have created problems that affect mothers being in the home. Some of the problems being that there are some circumstances where often times it requires two incomes for families to be able to keep up with the bills and to provide for the family. Another problem I feel is our culture: the way we view motherhood from the worlds perspective. Some say, it’s not fulfilling to be at home and to just be a mother, it’s boring, it’s too hard, a woman doesn’t get a lot of time to herself or gets to do what she wants, its demanding, exhausting, and a stay at home mom is not given the credit or looked at in success or accomplishment in any way in comparison to that of a successful business woman with a career- (in the worlds view) In response to some of these apparent problems, I feel that a lot of it comes down to priorities, perspective and what we truly value in life. The world has created this society but we know what the responsibilities the Lord has given us are and we know that he will always provide a way for us to accomplish what he has commanded us. ………if we truly desire it. A lot of money troubles come down to wants, and the quality of material things and entertaining activities we feel we need. I also feel that if men really take on the responsibility to provide, they can prepare for that in the future by making wise decisions and they can make it possible to provide comfortably in this world of so much opportunity. I also feel that even if there is two incomes required there are many ways that the mother can still be at home and able to put her responsibility as a mother first. There are many jobs that you can do from home, just to name one of many for example, my sister runs a day home out of her home, with only a few extra children part-time, which does more than enough to contribute to the families needs, so she can be there for her children and be at home. There are many other ways that we can fulfill our roles as mother as first priority and still be able to make ends meet. Regardless of the way the world looks at motherhood we know how far-reaching the effects are of the nurturing and loving care only a mother can provide. It is not a bad thing for a woman to desire to have an education -it is beneficial, it is not bad thing for a woman to desire a career and to make her contributions in the world that way-but I feel that being a mother and rasing your chidlren should always come first. There is no greater contribution a woman can make to society than being a true mother to her children and there is alot of life left after raising children for careers and other things of far less importance. It is my opinion, although there are also many studies that allude to confirming it, that I feel the value of motherhood is essential to the success, and virtue of our society. If you look back in time when mothers entered the workforce, and children no longer were being nurtured and raised fully by their mothers, I feel society (as a whole),- especially in virtue- began to decline drastically at this time and has continued on that downward spiral ever since. Just as the proclamation to the world on the family states that we will stand accountable to God for failure to fulfill family responsibilities and they warn that as a result of that disintegration of the family, it will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets. Are we not seeing this today?? The difference in values, virtue and perspective since then is almost unrecognizable. And I truly feel it can be directly related to the fact that children are no longer receiving the nurture and loving care of their mothers as it was meant to be. (Responsibilities in the family are not being fulfilled) I feel this is also the result of so many children who have low-self esteems and seem to have no respect or understanding of so many things in life—such things that a mother is able to instill, shape, and direct. So many children are missing the nourishing and love from childhood that is so essential for their proper development that they begin searching for it in early adolescence through friends, drugs and other harmful behaviors. I’m not saying that this is all the cause of all these problems but I will say that I truly feel it is in large measure, a contributing factor. I know that when we understand Heavenly Fathers plan and understand the importance and significance of the role of motherhood we will do everything we can to keep it a priority in our lives and protect its value in our society and know that we as mothers have the responsibility along with our spouses to nourish, teach, prepare and love our children and not except society or other people to fulfill that responsibility.
Some quotes on Motherhood
The mother is the most precious possessions of the nation, so precious that society advances its highest well-being when it protects the functions of the mother -Ellen KeyMothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined.-John S C Abbott
Women as the guardians of children possess a great power. They are the molders of their children's personalities and the arbiters of their development.-Ann Oakley
Whenever I'm with my mother, I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.-Amy Tan The Kitchen God's Wife
To be a mother is a woman's greatest vocation in life. She is a partner with God. No being has a position of such power and influence. She holds in her hands the destiny of nations, for to her comes the responsibility and opportunity of molding the nation's citizens.-Spencer W. Kimball
Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. But here again, because there is nothing to sell, there is a very general disposition to regard a married woman's work as no work at all, and to take it as a matter of course that she should not be paid for it. -George Bernard Shaw
Motherhood is the greatest potential influence in human society. Her caress first awakens in the child a sense of security; her kiss the first realization of affection; her sympathy and tenderness, the first assurance that there is love in the world. Thus in infancy and childhood she implants ever-directing and restraining influences that remain through life.-David 0. McKay
I affirm my profound belief that God's greatest creation is womanhood. I also believe that there is no greater good in all the world than motherhood. The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation. James E. Faust
Her dignity consists in being unknown to the world; her glory is in the esteem of her husband; her pleasures in the happiness of her family.-Jean Rousseau
The mother, more than any other, affects the moral and spiritual part of the children's character. She is their constant companion and teacher in formative years. The child is ever imitating and assimilating the mother's nature. It is only in after life that men gaze backward and behold how a mother's hand and heart of love molded their young lives and shaped their destiny. -E.W. Caswell
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