President David O. McKay said, “The ability and willingness properly to rear children, the gift to love, and eagerness to express it in soul development, make motherhood the noblest office or calling in the world. She who can paint a masterpiece or write a book that will influence millions deserves the admiration and the plaudits of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of health, beautiful sons and daughters, whose influence will be felt through generations to come, deserves the highest honor that man can give and the choicest blessings of Heavenly Father.”
Each of you should be grateful to be a woman, President Kimball said. To be a righteous woman is a glorious thing in any age. To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the 2nd coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling. The righteous woman’s strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times..
Speaking to woman, Sister Mary Ellen Smoot (then General Relief Society President) said, “Each of us has a vital role, even a sacred mission to perform as a daughter in Zion. It is our destiny to rejoice as we fill the earth with greater kindness and gentleness, greater love and compassion, greater sympathy and empathy than have ever been known before. It is time to give ourselves to the Master and allow him to lead us into fruitful fields where we can enrich a world filled with darkness and misery.
I suggest that you humbly ask the Lord what he would have you do and why you are uniquely suited to serve. Ask yourself “What can I contribute?” “What can I do to strengthen the sisters in my Ward?” and so forth. We each have a purpose and a reason for being. Every sister has a thread to weave in the tapestry of time. Discover your thread and begin to weave.
Loving and leading – these words summarize not only the all-consuming work of the Father and the Son, but the essence of your labor, for a Mothers work is to help the Lord with HIS work. Ho then can we as Women of God best help the Lord with his Work?
Prophets have repeatedly answered this question, as did the First Presidency six decades ago when they called motherhood “the highest, holiest service assumed by mankind”.
Sheri Dew said, “Have you ever wondered why prophets have taught the doctrine of motherhood – and it’s doctrine – again and again? I have. I have thought long and hard about the work of the Women of God. And I have wrestled with what the doctrine of Motherhood means for us all. This issue has driven me to my knees, to the scriptures, and to the Temple – all of which teach an ennobling doctrine regarding our most crucial role as women. It is a doctrine about which we must be clear if we hope to stand “steadfast and immovable” regarding the issues that swirl around our gender. For Satan has declared war on Womanhood. He knows that those who rock the cradle can rock his earthly empire. And he knows that without righteous mothers loving and leading the next generation the kingdom of God will fail.
When we understand the magnitude of motherhood, it becomes clear why prophets have been so protective of woman’s most sacred role. While we tend to equate motherhood solely with maternity, in the Lord’s language, the word mother has layers of meaning. Of al the words they could have chosen to define her role and her essence, both God the Father and Adam called Eve, “The Mother of All Living.” – And they did so before she ever bore a child. Like Eve your Motherhood began before you were born. Just as worthy men were foreordained to hold the priesthood in mortality, righteous woman were endowed premortally with the privilege of motherhood. Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who You are as women. It defines Your very Identity, Your Divine Stature and Nature, And the Unique Traits that our Father in Heaven gave you.
President Gordon B Hinckley stated that “God planted in Women something Divine.” That something is the gift and the Gifts of Motherhood. Elder Matthew Cowley taught that “men have to have something given to them in mortality to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. They are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls and the regenerating force in the lives of God’s children.
Motherhood is not what was left over after our Father blessed his sons with priesthood ordination. IT was the most ennobling endowment He could give His daughters, a sacred trust that gave women an unparalleled role in helping His children keep their second estate. As president J. Reuben Clark declared, mother is ‘as divinely called, as eternally important in it’s place as the Priesthood itself.”
Nevertheless the subject of Motherhood is a very tender one, for it evokes some of our greatest joys and heartaches. This has been so from the beginning. Eve was “glad” after the Fall, realizing she otherwise ‘never would have seed”. And yet, imagine her anguish over Cain and Abel. Some mothers experience pain because of the children they have born, others feel pain because they do not bear children here. About this Elder John A. Widtsoe was explicit: “Women who through no fault of their own cannot exercise the gift of motherhood directly, may do so vicariously.”
For reasons known to the Lord, some women are required to wait to have children. This delay is not easy for any righteous woman. But the Lord’s timetable for each of us does not negate our nature. Some of us, then, must simply find other ways to mother. And all around us are those who need to be loved and led.
Eve set the pattern. In addition to bearing children, she mothered all of mankind when she made the most courageous decision any woman has ever made and with Adam opened the way for us to progress. She set an example of womanhood for men to respect and woman to follow, modeling the characteristics with which women have been endowed: heroic faith, a keen sensitivity to the Spirit, an abhorrence of evil, and complete selflessness. Like the Savior, “who for joy that was set before him endured the cross'”, Eve, for the joy of helping initiate the Human Family, endured the Fall. She loved us enough to help lead us.
As daughters of our Heavenly Father, and as daughters of Eve, you are all mothers and you have always been mothers. And we each have the responsibility to love and help lead the rising generation. How will our young women learn to live as women of God unless they see what women of God look like, meaning what we wear, watch and read; how we fill our time and our minds; how we face temptation and uncertainty; where we find true joy; and why modesty and femininity are hallmarks of righteous women? How will our young men learn to value women of God if we don’t show the virtue of our Virtues?
Fe of you will reach your potential without the nurturing of both the mother who bore you and the mothers who bear with us. I was thrilled recently to see on of my youth leaders for the first time in years. As a teenager who had absolutely no self-confidence, I always sidled up this woman because she would put her arm around me and say, “You are the best girl!” She loved me, so I let her lead me. How many young men and women are desperate for your love and leadership? Do we fully realize that our influence as mothers in Israel is irreplaceable and Eternal?
When I was growing up it was not uncommon for Mother to wake me up in the middle of the night and say, “Sherri, take your pillow and go downstairs.” I knew what that meant. It meant a tornado was coming and I was instantly afraid.. But then Mother would say, Sheri it will be ok.” Her words always calmed me. Today, decades later, when life seems overwhelming and frightening, I call Mother and wait for her to say, “Everything will be okay.”.
Never has there been a greater need for righteous mothers – mothers who bless their children with a sense of safety, security, and confidence about the future, mothers who teach their children where to find peace and truth and that the power of Jesus Christ is always stronger than the power of the adversary. Every time you build the faith or reinforce the nobility of a young woman or man, every time you love or lead anyone even on small step along the path, you are true to your endowment and calling as mothers and in the process you build the kingdom of God. No woman who understands the gospel would ever think that any other work is more important or would ever say, “I am just a mother,” for mothers heal the souls of men.
Look around. Who need you and your influence? If you really want to make a difference, it will happen as you mother those you have borne and those you are willing to bear with. It you will stay right with our youth – meaning if you will love them – in most cases they will stay right with us – meaning, they will let you lead them.
As mothers in Israel, you are the lord’s secret weapon, your influence comes from a divine endowment that has been in place from the beginning. In the premortal world, when our Father described your role Sister Dew again said, “I wonder if we didn’t stand in wide-eyed wonder that He would bless you with a sacred trust so central to His plan and that He would endow you with gifts so vital to the loving and leading of His children, I wonder if we shouted for joy at least in part because of the ennobling stature He gave you in his Kingdom. The world won’t tell you that, but the Spirit will.
And if the day comes when you are the only woman on earth who find nobility and divinity in motherhood, so be it. For mother is the word that will define a righteous woman made perfect in the highest degree of the celestial, a woman who has qualified for eternal increase in posterity.
In one of the first meetings of the Relief Society of Nauvoo, Joseph Smith admonished the sisters to ‘live up to their privilege.’ With that encouragement as a foundation, sisters in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have been taught to live up to their divine potential by fulfilling God’s purposes for them. As they come to understand who they really are – God’s daughters, with an innate capacity to love and nurture – they reach their potential as holy women.
Priesthood leaders have also reminded women of their divine nature and sacred responsibilities. Elder M Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “We believe in and are counting on your goodness and your strength, your propensity for virtue and valor, your kindness and courage, your strength and resilience. We believe in your mission as women of God. We believe that the Church simply will not accomplish what it must without your faith and faithfulness, your innate tendency to put the well-being of others ahead of your own, and your spiritual strength and tenacity. And we believe that God’s plan is for you to become queens and to receive the highest blessings any woman can receive n time or eternity.
As women live up to their privilege and potential as daughters of God, they prepare themselves for the blessing of eternal life. This is the glorious destiny of God has in store for His faithful daughters.
President Gordon B Hinckley has counseled the women of the Church:: “Rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to se goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what can you do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass.
Sister Smoot exclaimed, “When I hear sisters say, “it is just too hard to do my visiting teaching,” or “I simply do not have time to pray and read my scriptures!” or “I have too much going on to attend Home, Family and Personal Enrichment Meetings.” I want to say as President Hinckley counseled, “Rise to the great potential within you.” We may need to step back and consider if our actions are consistent with those things that matter most to us. As we place first things first in our lives, we can live each day without regret..
We go to Relief Society each week not only to be fed, nurtured and loved, but also to report for duty. Sometimes the most important duty is right within the walls of our own homes.
Lucifer is doing all that he can to divert us from those things of first importance. One of his most effective tools is to convince us that it is impossible to stay centered on spiritual things when the demands of life are so pressing.
We cannot abandon our faith when Challenges com our way. We will not turn away; we will not retreat; we will not become discouraged. We will move boldly and clearly forward and be an example for all those around us in modesty, humility, and faith. Being steadfast and immovable is a personal quest that has eternal rewards, for if we do so, “Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you His, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life.
(Bear Testimony) :)
Posts
About Tammy: Daughter, Sister, Wife, Mother of 7 (ages: G12, G11, B8, G6, B5, B2, G1). Stepmom of 2. Mother in law to two, Grandma to Peyton, Mattix and Andrew and blogger at BellaOnline and Latter-Day Homeschool and JuddzWorld!! Happy & Satisfied!! 
