Motherhood Quotes - 2
President Kimball warned, "Too many mothers work away from home to furnish sweaters and music lessons and trips and fun for their children. Too many women spend their time in socializing, in politicking, in public services when they should be home to teach and train and receive and love their children into security."
"On a Monday evening not long ago, I was walking past a playground where a young family was choosing up sides for a game. I overheard one of the children call out, "Mom, choose me." As I walked on, these words rang in my ears. Life in today's world places a multitude of demands on a woman's resources of time and energy. We can choose to apply our talents in more arenas than ever before, but there are only a few of those places in which our influence is irreplaceable. I can imagine children the world over saying, "When you decide where to spend the time and gifts that God has given you, Mom, choose me."
In the General Relief Society Meeting on September 27, 1997, Sister Virginia U. Jensen related the following
A good mother is like a quilt She keeps her children warm but doesn't smother them.
President Ezra Taft Benson has stated that when a husband encourages or insists that his wife work out of the home for their convenience, "not only will the family suffer in such instances,...but his own spiritual growth and progression will be hampered."
In 1996--65 % of all Utah families have both parents working. Those are statistics from 1996. I wonder how much that has risen in 3 years. Are you part of that statistic? Are your children becoming a statistic too? "The alarming increase of lawlessness among today's children and youths is due to the fact that many American children aren't well supervised--especially after school and after dinner. Statistics show that crime by and against juveniles peaks at 3 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. Previous studies have shown that a significant number of teen pregnancies occur between 3 and 6 p.m. (Source: James Alan Fox, Criminal Justice Professor, Northeastern University-Boston 1996).
Certainly, if you are a single sister, divorced, or widowed, you must do all that needs to be done to provide the basic necessities of life for your children, but to the rest of us, Sisters, it is time to come home!!!
Linda Reed, Salt Lake Butler Stake Women's Conference, April 24, 1999 (handout)
"It is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings."
Ann Landers
"Of course it is recognized that some widows and occasionally wives with families at home must work to support their families. But this ought not to be done where avoidable. Mothers of unmarried children should come home and, where necessary, let standard of living and luxury reduce to a point where the salary of the husband will suffice. The numerous luxuries are far too costly when a marriage and the children's welfare are on the scales."
President Spencer W. Kimball counseled
Let every mother realize that she has no greater blessing than the children who have come to her as a gift from the Almighty; that she has no greater mission than to rear them in light and truth, in understanding and love; that she will have no greater happiness than to see them grow into young men and women who respect principles of virtue, who walk free from the stain of immorality and from the shame of delinquency....
I remind mothers everywhere of the sanctity of your calling. No other can adequately take your place. No responsibility is greater, no obligation more binding than that you rear in love and peace and integrity those whom you have brought into the world.
Teachings of President Hinckley Topic: Mothers (General Conference, Oct 1993)
The mother in the home is a daughter of God, a soul of intelligence, devotion, and love who may be clothed with the Spirit of God; that it is her privilege and obligation as a steward of our Heavenly Father's children to nurture those children in their daily needs; that she, in companionship with her husband, is also to teach her children to "understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands . . . [and] to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord."
(D&C 68:25, 28.) (Ensign Jan 1994)
The true strength of any nation, society or family lies in those qualities of character that have been acquired for the most part by children taught in the quiet, simple everyday manner of mothers.
(Motherhood, 1995)
It's been the mothers who have been the great carriers and purveyors of faith throughout the history of this Church. I believe that will all my heart.
(From general session, Heber City/Springville (Utah) Regional Conference, May 14, 1995. Church News)
In this age when more and more women are turning to daily work, how tremendous it is once in a while to just stop and recognize that the greatest job that any woman will ever do will be in nurturing and teaching and lifting and encouraging and rearing her children in righteousness and truth. There is no other thing that will compare with that regardless of what she does.
And I hope that the women of the Church will not slight their greatest responsibility in favor of a lesser responsibility. To the mothers of this Church, every mother who is here this day, I want to say that, as the years pass, you will become increasingly grateful for that which you did in molding the lives of your children in the direction of righteousness and goodness and integrity and faith. My beloved sisters, I believe this with all my heart.
(May 1995, Heber Regional Conference)
To the mothers of this Church, every mother who is here today, I want to say that as the years pass, you will become increasingly grateful for that which you did in molding the lives of your children in the direction of righteousness and goodness, integrity and faith. That is most likely to happen if you can spend adequate time with them. For you who are single parents I say that many hands stand ready to help you.
The Lord is not unmindful of you. Neither is His church. May He bless you, my beloved sisters who find yourselves in the situation of single parenthood. May you have health and strength and vitality to carry the heavy burden that is yours. May you have loving friends and associates to bear you up in your times of trial. You know the power of prayer as perhaps few others do. Many of you spend much time on your knees speaking with your Father in Heaven, with tears running down your cheeks. Please know that we also pray for you.
(General Conference, Oct. 1996)
Sisters, guard your children. They live in a world of evil. The forces are all about them. I am proud of so many of your sons and daughters who are living good lives. But I am deeply concerned about many others who are gradually taking on the ways of the world.
Nothing is more precious to you as mothers, absolutely nothing. Your children are the most valuable thing you will have in time or all eternity. You will be fortunate indeed if, as you grow old and look at those you brought into the world, you find in them uprightness of life, virtue in living, and integrity in their behavior.
(General Relief Society Meeting, Oct 1998)
"Mothers, train up your children in righteousness; do not attempt to save the world and let your own family fall apart."
President Ezra Taft Benson, Area Conference in Taiwan in 1975 Quoted in Church News June 17, 2000
"A mother has far greater influence on her children than anyone else, and she must realize that every word she speaks, every act, every response, her attitude, even her appearance and manner of dress affect the lives of her children and the whole family."
N. Eldon Tanner, "No Greater Honor: The Woman's Role," Ensign, Jan. 1974, 7
"Recently I reviewed the history of many missionaries and found a powerful correlation between exceptional missionaries and mothers who chose to remain home, often at great financial and personal sacrifice...They reflect honor to mothers who sacrificed to remain home for their children's benefit."
Richard G. Scott "The Power of Correct Principles" - General Conference, April 1993
"No power on earth compares to a mother's tender prayers."
Sir Edwin Arnold
"Mothers, we acknowledge and esteem your faith in every footstep. Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever."
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Ensign, May 1997, 35
"What a mother sings to the cradle goes all the way to the coffin."
Henry Ward Beecher
"If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?"
Milton Berle