Happy Mother’s Day.
The single greatest institution is also the most successful one in all the earth’s history. Mothers have kept civilization together from the beginning.
Fathers have been far less valiant in history than have mothers. Fathers have forsaken their responsibilities to bear priesthood and perpetuate the Gospel with such regularity that the history of mankind is predominately a history of apostasy. Mothers however, have continued to bear, raise, nurture and love their children.
God bless those who are our mothers or the mothers of our children. Today we should honor them in thought and deed.
(I’m doing all the cooking today. And all the dishes, too. I think I’ll use TGI Fridays to get them done…)
Whew. I’m glad you stopped when you did. I thought we were going to get into how much better and more righteous and holy women are than men and men are just jackasses deep down and there’s going to be billions of women in heaven and maybe a couple dozen men.
I’ve always hated those sentiments. And funny, they’re always preached/written by men. Men who apparently haven’t been to Relief Society lately.
Beautiful Post Denver, thank you for writing that.
These are some of my favorite quotes about Mothers & Women:
“Any woman who is willing to bear children & do her best to rear them in the gospel of Jesus Christ, is going to be saved if she never does another good thing.”
Lorenzo Snow
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 in herent right & authority equal to the Priesthood, to be Saviors of human souls. “Matthew Cowley Speaks”, p. 109.
We call upon the Women of the Church to stand for righteousness… I see this as the ‘One Hope’ in a world that is marching towards self-destruction.” Pres. Hinckley,
“The decay & the ruin of a nation has always laid in the hands of it’s women. So does it’s life & strength, it’s reverence for beauty, it’s mercy & kindness, & above all, it’s men.”
“Families are being torn asunder everywhere… Mothers can do more than any other group to change this.”
Pres. Hunter, CR Oct. 1995
“Men depend on women to be their example of Christlike love, service & sacrifice.”
Lemme guess, AV is a man.
I’m just saying having children and raising them is akin to men working to provide food and shelter for the family. Why aren’t men praised for this? What real choice did most LDS women have before the advent of the Pill to NOT have children once they were married? Isn’t the marriage tradition so strong in the LDS culture, that single women have a harder time of it generally?
Bearing the priesthood and perpetuating the Gospel is a far more difficult endeavor than getting pregnant, going through labor and breastfeeding. Perpetuating the Gospel is the work of the Spirit, isn’t it? Isn’t that totally different from just existing, procreating as billions have done and will do so long as the earth stands? Why aren’t the men praised for getting women pregnant and keeping wives and children fed and sheltered?
There’s living and then there’s Gospel living. Many good people raise good families without the priesthood or the Church. But those women are awesomely better because they are the ones birthing?
I’ve always found this “praise” to be misleading, deceptive and annyoying… because I was born a woman and have raised kids in the Church – hey, maybe I’m lukewarm or haven’t had a personal scripture studay in 18 months, but hey- I’ve given birth 5 times and by golly, they know all the Primary lessons, so I’m waaaaay ahead of that husband of mine who works 50 hour weeks and pays for everything we need, because he hasn’t saved the Constitution or whatever???
Sorry to put a damper on everyone’s Mother’s Day…