I am a working mother who is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The reason I mention that I am a working mother and a member of this church, is because sometimes those two things don’t seem cohesive, at least they didn’t always to me.

I believed a mother should be home to teach and care for her children, unless the family didn’t have enough money to eat or pay the important bills. Now that I am a working mother and have seen the struggles of my own children and the struggles of other children, I believe this teaching even more.

I wanted to follow the teachings found in The Proclamation to the World on the Family, that a mother was to be the main nurturer in the family. My husband worked very hard to provide, so that I could stay home to raise our children. He supported me in my role as nurturer and I was very grateful.

When our children were old enough to go to school, the Lord showed me a different teaching that is also found in the Proclamation to The Family. That husband and wife are to work together to meet the needs of the family. I was inspired to gain an education, which I did through a Church program (Self-Reliance Services), which in turn, inspired me to apply for a job.

I mention this, because the Lord knew that after my husband had supported me in my role as nurturer, it was time for me to support my husband in his role as provider. At the same time as I received work (which was terrifying for me to take), everything in our house started to break and would continue to break for the next 4 years. I am talking fixes to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, not including our family vehicle which needed to be replaced.

Heavenly Father knew this would happen, so He prepared a way for my husband and me to work together, as partners, in providing for all the needs of our family. Through this experience, we have become a stronger, more united couple. The reason we are stronger is because the struggles were very rough, but we held firm in the teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ. We didn’t allow doubt to overtake us (mainly me) about following personal revelation, supported by the teachings of the prophets.

I have struggled greatly these last 4 years with weight gain, high anxiety, exhaustion, health concerns, family time, and more. But, I have also found medicine that calms my anxiety. I realized I can do more than I ever thought possible (with God’s help). I gained valuable skills in the work field, in my family, and church. I have also put a focus on my formal education, which has been huge for me.

The most important thing I have gained, (strange as this might sound, considering I just stated it became a struggle) is time with my family. It isn’t perfect, but I make more time to do things with my kids and my spouse, because I see the need more than ever and I desire that time with them even more.

How I have grown in my thinking on where the Lord wants women. He wants them where He needs them and he will let them know as long as they are being diligent in striving to follow his teachings and are listening for his voice guiding them. I am very grateful for the lessons I have learned.

The post Where does the Lord want women? “He wants them where He needs them.” appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

I love my children with a fierceness that hurts. My oldest just graduated high school, and my momma heart hardly knows how to wrap itself around the fact that my babies are leaving our nest. There is nothing in the world except my connection with God that brings me more deep joy than being a mom.

But just yesterday, I saw a man pushing a stroller and I got a sort of heavy, anxious feeling in my chest. I turned to my husband and asked, “How did we do it? How did we do that early stage of having three little children?” Being a mom of littles was hard for me!

Although I didn’t struggle with the kind of postpartum depression that leads to thoughts of harming a baby, the OCD that had almost left me as a single young adult came back with a fury the minute I found out I was pregnant, and I dealt with serious postpartum depression with at least my first baby. And anxiety? That was my constant companion from the time I was a child. Having to also care for children of my own only exacerbated that struggle.

So when I saw this Mormon Message (see below) about a young mom who dealt with serious postpartum anxiety, depression, and OCD, my heart went out to her and I knew I wanted to post about it.

In the Church, we talk a lot about how much motherhood matters to God. Now that I’ve been doing this motherhood thing for nearly two decades, I understand more why it is that God commands us to multiply and replenish. Family matters. Motherhood matters in ways that I think our mortal selves can’t really comprehend. It’s not just for the joy that can be there, but for the challenge of it all that stretches us to the point of recognizing all the more how much we need God.

Because family life can be really, really hard. Motherhood can be knock-you-to-your knees hard. Like the woman in this video, I had spent time in the professional world before I found my husband and became a mom. I’d served a foreign mission. I’d traveled the world meeting with executives and helping them work through complex operational and organizational challenges.

But nothing, nothing could have prepared me for how hard motherhood would be. And I was embarrassed by that. As this Mormon woman says, my world was turned upside-down when I became a mother.

If you are a mom and finding yourself shocked by the challenge of motherhood, know you are not alone. Like this woman says in the Mormon Channel video, don’t hesitate to accept offers for or ask for help.

I wonder if in our busy modern lives, we’ve lost some of the power of Relief Society when it comes to helping women who are moms. I know as a mom of teenagers I wish I had more formal ways to engage the women in my ward about launching children into adulthood and parenting adult children. We need each other!

I know that when I was a young mom, I needed a lot of encouragement. I am glad I had a few friends I could call, and I’m grateful for the visiting teachers who stepped in to help. But I really didn’t know it was okay to struggle with motherhood. All I knew is that I knew my weakness as a mom and wondered if my kids deserved better.

Now I know that those weren’t thoughts from God. Now I know that motherhood is a process. Now I really know that the Atonement is for parents (oh, how grateful I am that Jesus Christ is there to cover and compensate and comfort us in our mortal weakness as parents!).

And now I know that one of the ways to access the power of the Savior’s grace is to learn to work with my body and its weakness. Anxiety, OCD, depression — these are real things. They affect the brain, which is both a physical organ and a spiritual center in our lives. Like Rachel in this video, I struggled for years not being able to feel the power of the Atonement in ways that people often talk about it. Peace isn’t something you feel regularly when anxiety presses on you. Trained therapists can help us separate out the thoughts that come with anxiety so that we can create more space for peace to enter in and have better eyes to see tender mercies that extend beyond just what we can (or can’t) feel.

Again, if you struggle as a mom, don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you struggle with anxiety, depression, OCD or other mental health issues, please share with someone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, including professional help. The pieces can and do come together as we seek for help. And God’s grace often shows up in ways that we might not expect.

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Hi Everybody. My name is Shay Thurston. I’ve been asked to give a talk today about moms and I want to talk about how moms are like Jesus.

I Believe That “Mothers Do the Work of Jesus”

In 3rd Nephi, after the three days of darkness when Jesus died, the people heard a still small voice speaking to them. It told them many things. One thing was: “O ye people of these great cities which have fallen, how oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and have nourished you.”

This is Jesus speaking to the Nephites. He compares himself to a hen, which is a female chicken. Not just any female chicken, but a mother chicken. It is easy to picture a mother hen gathering her little chicks under her wings. It’s also easy to picture Jesus gathering us around him.

Jesus says that he has nourished us. The word nourish means: to feed or to keep healthy, or to nurture and strengthen.

I believe that mothers nourish us in many ways.

They nourish our bodies by creating a body for us as babies. They feed us as we grow older and they take care of our bodies when we are sick. Moms help us exercise by going on bike rides and walks with us. Jesus nourishes our bodies by creating a world for us with food to eat.

Mothers nourish our minds by protecting us from the bad and evil things in the world. They make sure that the things we read and see and hear are good for us. They also nourish our minds by helping us finish projects and understand our homework for school.

When we are little, Moms teach us to walk and talk, then they teach us to read and pray. Moms also teach us how to work hard and how to have fun playing when we are done working. Jesus nourishes our minds by giving us commandments that make us smart and happy.

Mothers nourish our souls by giving us someone to love. It would be a very unloving life without a mom. Moms teach us *how* to love. They show us love through hugs, being kind, spending time with us and by doing lots of things for us.

Moms take us to new places and show us beautiful things in our world. Most importantly, mothers teach us how to Choose the Right. They teach us the Gospel of Jesus Christ as they read the Book of Mormon with us. Jesus nourishes our souls by giving us forgiveness through the Atonement.

I believe that Heavenly Father gave us moms to nourish our bodies, our minds, and our souls. My mom helps me learn and grow by teaching me how to cook food, because this is something I like to do. Together we make clam chowder, pizza dough, cookies and lots of other things.

My mom also pauses our scripture study every few verses to explain what is going on. She lets my sister and me ask questions. I really like this because I feel like I understand more about the story we’re reading.

Once, when we were talking about repentance during scripture study, I felt the spirit deep in my heart. My eyes got teary and my heart was beating fast. I volunteered to say the prayer and said one of the best prayers of my life.

When I was done with the prayer, the tears were gone and I felt all shiny and smiley and wonderful. Moms can help us feel the Spirit.

I have a testimony that Moms do the same work as Jesus. They love us and care about us, even when we do the wrong thing. They forgive us when we hurt them. They are happy and cheer for us when we do the right things. I know that Heavenly Father sent me to just the right mom for me. I am so glad we have mothers.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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Yes, Pikus-Pace is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Read her Mormon.org profile here — obviously written before Sochi.) If you look at photos of her wearing her silver medal, you might also see her wearing the Young Women torch necklace (see our Facebook page) or the Young Women medallion. The torch is a reminder to stand and shine Christ’s light to others, and the medallion is a symbol of years of work of goal-setting and faith-building efforts through the Personal Progress program.

You’ve probably already heard her Skeleton story — from being at the top of the charts in the sport a decade ago (and, looking back, realizing that her sport came before family), to missing the Turin Olympics due to a freak (and serious) leg injury (a bobsled ran into her), to barely missing a podium spot in Vancouver, to retirement after Vancouver, to re-entering her sport after a devastating miscarriage (at 18 weeks) and prayerful, partnership-focused consideration.

The catch to her coming back to compete? Her family would travel together to everything.

How was this possible? Friends and family helped, and eventually she got a sponsorship, but the story that brought me to tears this week was about a couple who had a chance meeting with Noelle and decided to quietly hand her a card with a $30,000 check in it a week before they were set to start traveling.

Mormons talk about how important marriage and family are. It’s wonderful to see such a powerful, primetime-sports example of a family who lives that reality. Did you watch the video showing how she jumped into the stands to get to her family? And how she said, “Remember who you are and what you stand for!”? I love to see how Noelle and her husband works together (he even designed and built her sled: e.g., “For Pikus-Pace, the custom sled is a reminder of the couple’s enduring partnership. ‘It’s never been only me crossing finish line,’ she said. ‘It’s always been us.'”) I love seeing their determination to make this dream work, and only make it work if the family could do it together. Although their situation is definitely unusual, and the miracles that made this possible were significant, the principles of putting family (and faith) first are applicable to us all. (See this simple photo of Pikus-Pace attending LDS Sunday church meetings in Sochi.)

I’m reminded of a quote we read yesterday in Relief Society:

“Do you spend as much time making your family and home successful as you do in pursuing social and professional success? Are you devoting your best creative energy to the most important unit in society–the family?” (Joseph Fielding Smith)

p.s. Besides the smile and tears I experienced as I watched the last run online, hearing the commentator talk about how she started her run with eyes closed (the commentator assumes in prayer), and how it was her family that was everything as she did that last run, I cracked up to hear that she has 2 kilos of chocolate taped into her sled.

** Image from Noelle Pikus-Page Facebook fan page.

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to have your heart go walking around outside your body.

Elizabeth Stone

– – – – –

This post was submitted by a Mormon mom who wanted to share her story for other moms out there who may be feeling alone as they watch their child struggle with sexual/pornography addiction. Many thanks to this brave mom, and to the other women, who have contributed to this recent series on pornography.

For those who do have loved ones who struggle with sexual or other addiction, there are groups in the Church’s Addiction Recovery Program for loved ones of those in addiction (look for Family Support groups or PASG groups (pornography addiction recovery groups)). There are also various “-Anon” programs (Al-Anon, S-Anon, etc.) that many Church members have found helpful. These are spiritually-based but non-denominational programs that help loved ones find healing and peace in the face of having a loved one in addiction.

To all mothers so affected, know that with the Savior’s help, your mother heart can find healing. You are in the thoughts and prayers of many. As this mother so beautifully testifies, your child is under the loving, watchful care of the Savior and Heavenly Father, who are ready to help your child when he/she is ready to seek help and recovery. 

– – –

A Mother’s Perspective

I have been reading the Mormon Women posts with great interest. We have a porn addict in our family and have watched with agony his struggle. It has destroyed his marriage and continues to affect his children. He has lost his membership in the Church and is struggling to ‘come back.’

His addiction began when he was 12 through a careless bunch of older boys who threw some hard core porn out of a truck at my son’s bus stop. My son and his friends, being curious 12 year olds picked it up and shared it. Instinctively knowing it was something they shouldn’t be looking at, they hid the pages in their neighborhood ‘hideout’ and took some of it home. I discovered the pages stuck in a box in the attic when I was looking for something. My husband and I had no idea that this would be the beginning of literally years and years of heartache and thousands of dollars spent on trying to help our son overcome this problem. By the time he was 14 it was apparent that he this was a serious problem.

My husband went on every camp out and activity because we were afraid our son would ensnare another boy by sharing his discovery. We spoke with Bishop after Bishop trying to warn them so that they would be extra watchful of the boys around our son. It was long enough ago that their response was anything from outright dismissal to “boys will be boys” and “he will outgrow it.” No one knew the devastating effects this addiction would have in our son’s life.

I can’t help but relate the posts you have from wives of addicts to my place as a mother….a lot of it applies. I have spent many hours pleading with the Lord to help me know what I could do as a mother to help my son. I racked my brain trying to figure out where I had gone wrong and what had happened to bring us to this heartache. After a while, my husband and I realized that there was not a whole lot we could do. It became necessary to ask our son to leave our home when he turned 18 and had graduated from High School. It was not done in anger, we just could not allow him to continue to bring pornography into our home and expose his siblings to such filth. We agonized over this decision but he simply was not capable of staying away from pornography.

Years have passed and now my son is in his late 30s. He has a son and is divorced from his wife. The specter of pornography continues to haunt him and we have watched our happy, funny, delightful child turn into something we don’t really recognize. Pornography has desensitized him. His language is crude, he is uncomfortable around others in our family and covers his discomfort with sarcasm and ridicule.

But just in the last few months we have seen some small changes in his attitudes. He is beginning to realize that he is not happy and will never be happy as long as he cannot overcome this addiction. His son is turning 8 and he will not be able to baptize him. His siblings have gotten married and he has been unable to attend their temple weddings. He is beginning the process of regaining his membership. we have rejoiced at each small victory and continue to encourage him to repent and return. I have no idea how long this process will take and how many missteps there will be along the way. But I have gained the assurance that the Lord has not forgotten him and that he will be able to overcome this someday…..

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~Michelle

There is a stack of dishes in the sink that I’m really tempted to do. The last few days, I’ve also been ready to grab the weed whacker and tackle the weeds in my front yard. I don’t like going to bed with dishes in my sink, and, well, when weeds start creeping close to my height, it’s hard not to want to whack them. (And it’s not like I don’t have a million other things that need to be done in my home, too.)

With apologies to my neighbors for the weeds, and recognition that my family may be bowl-less tomorrow for the morning rush, I’m practicing a little motto I’ve heard before.

“Give them dignity to fail.”

We recently started a new job rotation, and I admit the timing wasn’t great. Except maybe it was. The beginning of school (which it is where I live) can be a great time to start anew with an attempt at some rhythm. We had a particularly lazy, late-night summer (and we LOVED it), but it’s time to be back in the saddle. (Or so it appears. Truth be told, I wasn’t quite ready for school to start.)

I felt like it was time to fold more responsibility into our schedule for the kiddos. (With my chronic health struggles, I’ve not been so good at either my part of this or of managing their part. But I’m trying to step it up a little on both ends. We’ll see how it goes.) During the summer, the kids each had some daily stuff they had to do, and they kept track of their progress. But it was fairly easy given the lazy, long days.

We changed things up and added some daily chores for the school year. Now rather than different chores every couple of days, they were given the charge to come up with some sort of arrangement that required at least a week on their respective assignments, so that they would have opportunity to follow through.

Part of this attempt, though, means I’ve got to let go of the desire to control how things go. While I am still giving them little reminders to help as they get into the cadence of their decided-upon routines, there are jobs that are not getting done each day. That means a full garbage can and full sink sometimes when I go to bed.

But I figure there is some value in them learning that mom won’t always be around to do what needs to be done, and there is value in ME not hovering over them too much. And there is obviously value in the idea of family work.

I try to do this with homework and laundry, too. I’m there to help, but I make it a point not to run around like a crazy woman to facilitate last-minute stuff they have procrastinated. As much as possible, I try to let them pick up the slack (do their own laundry if they have a last-minute or pressing need that they haven’t communicated) so they can learn to take some responsibility.

I’m far from a perfect mom (!!), but in terms of the motto, at least, I’m feeling pretty good about the dirty dishes and the weeds tonight.

As a youth adviser, I am thinking about how we might allow youth to follow through and learn by experience a little more at church, too. I think of a leader who urged us to let the young people try and fail in our classes and groups — so they can have safe places to learn these kinds of lessons. That has stuck with me.

I think the following questions could be good to ask ourselves:

– When I give a lesson, am I trying to make it a good lesson, to make it about me and what I did to make it good, or am I giving them opportunities to invite, share, act, follow through, report, and make mistakes? ( e.g., Do I allow silence in the class or am I anxious to fill it?)
– When we plan activities, are we doing all the planning and the execution, or are we letting the youth leaders help and take some roles in the process? When things don’t work out, do we criticize and shame, or do we encourage and say, “That’s ok. We are here to learn by experience?”
– On the flip side, do we miss opportunities to mentor and work alongside our children and the youth in our stewardship? (I know I have sometimes failed with this, looking at chores as relief for me, rather than taking Sister Beck’s words to heart: “Working beside children in homemaking tasks creates opportunities to teach and model qualities children should emulate” (from “Mothers Who Know” with emphasis added. I also am far from having a house of order that she describes, so please don’t get the wrong idea. I’m such a work in progress. Still, I like to discuss principles that I think can be powerful for us as moms and leaders in the church.)

I think this model of working beside youth can work in the Church as well. We don’t just throw responsibilities over the wall; we work by and mentor and guide and counsel with the youth in our groups).

I’d be interested in others’ thoughts on this. How can we balance the nurturing roles we have while also letting our children and those in our stewardships learn by experience how to prioritize and balance their responsibilities? What has worked for you at home or at church to mentor our future leaders? How have you failed along the way and what have those experiences taught you?

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Recently, a friend of a friend had any mother’s worst nightmare come to pass: her daughter went missing. Police originally labeled the disappearance as a runaway case, but from the get-go Indica Huddleston‘s mother, Andrea, felt that perhaps foul play was involved. Regardless of what the police are labeling the case (it may be updated to an endangered person’s case), Andrea did what any mother would do. She poured her heart, soul, and time into doing all she could to try to bring her daughter home.

But she hasn’t stopped there. She’s also allowing God to pour truth and strength and light into her, and taking time to capture the truths that are coming. These quotes come from a post on her blog, Smile of Paradise.

There is no doubt I am facing my Goliath. It is taking all of my strength, and reservoir of strength, saved up through countless mornings talking to my God, to get me through this.

And so part of what I long to share, is that this light, this hope, this faith, and this courage is not particular to me…it is what comes, when one communes with our Father in Heaven.

He is waiting for each of you to come unto him.

He says:

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

I never, ever understood that last verse, like I do this morning. And as I sit here, and fully take in it’s meaning, I do have joy.

He truly has given me rest. And more amazingly…he has replaced darkness with light. And now all he is asking me to do, the only “burden” He is giving me, is to share it. To be “LIGHT.”

Now, I understand.

And it is as when we let that light flow through us, share that light, that we are filled with incomprehensible joy.

Here is a mother whose daughter has been missing for nearly a week, who surely has wrestled against every possible, nightmarish thought, and who is still, through it all, able to testify of the light and power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

It’s stunning to see this kind of faith. I love how she reaches out to others, realizing that we all have our adversities. She knows that pain is experienced by all, and that it can serve a purpose. And that we can practice faith.

Though our family has been called to go through this, each of you is facing your own challenges. I am aware and present to that. But I believe, the Lord, in his wisdom uses these kinds of things to strengthen our faith, to remind us that his Mercy is extended towards all men, but we must reach for it.

And though we have been through challenges before, nothing has ever tried my faith, as much as this. I am grateful that [so long ago it was set in my soul to “Teach the Smile of Paradise”] and have practiced, over and over during times which required less faith, before coming to this. I truly feel I have been prepared.

There is no doubt I am facing my Goliath. It is taking all of my strength, and reservoir of strength, saved up through countless mornings talking to my God, to get me through this.

And so part of what I long to share, is that this light, this hope, this faith, and this courage is not particular to me…it is what comes, when one communes with our Father in Heaven.

Indica, we are praying for you. Andrea, we are praying for you and your family. Thank you for sharing your faith even in the midst of such a heartrending time.

The post The Faith of a Mother appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Editor’s note: I never did get the additional motherhood posts posted around Mother’s Day; I often bite off more than I can chew when it comes to all the ideas I have for what to post. So when I saw this essay from my friend, I figured I had a chance to redeem myself, maybe a little. I love my friend’s honesty. I, too, struggled with my temper when my kiddos were small, and I, too, have found that God has helped me become better. It gives me hope as I struggle against other weaknesses that are part of this mortal condition.

“Losing my temper: Utah’s Young Mother of the Year confesses all” was written by a friend of mine whom I admire a great deal. I appreciate how real she is, and the testimony that God can help us with our weakness when we ask for His help. It won’t always come immediately (after all, we are here to learn and progress and grow line upon line), but He does care about our desires to be better.

I’m reminded of a talk on motherhood by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever.

One young mother wrote to me recently that she felt like the world expected her to teach her children reading, writing, interior design, Latin, calculus, and the Internet—all before the baby said something terribly ordinary, like “goo goo.” She worried because she felt she didn’t measure up or somehow wasn’t going to be able to be equal to the task, the mental investment, the spiritual and emotional exertion, the long-night, long-day, stretched-to-the-limit demands that sometimes are required in trying to be and wanting to be the mother God hopes she will be.

But one thing, she said, keeps her going. I quote: “Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God’s work. I know that my motherhood is an eternal partnership with Him.”

I truly believe heaven heralds the work of mothers. It is worth it, moms, now and forever. God knew He would send His children to imperfect parents. He will help us and our children as we (and they) turn to Him.

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I am an adviser in the Young Women program in my ward congregation. A key role of an adviser is to help with Sunday lessons. It was my turn this week to prepare a lesson (that’s not really what it is with the new curriculum, Come, Follow Me — we are urged not to teach/lecture/convey information but rather to engage the youth, to facilitate so that they can be the ones to teach, share, and testify).

I’ve found that usually there is a sense of a “forward flow” when anticipating teaching/facilitating a lesson. As I prayerfully open my heart to what to focus on in class, ideas will come and sort of settle on me. This week, only one thought really settled, and it was of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s most recent General Conference talk. But that was about all I got.

But then Saturday night while I was cleaning my room, I “happened” to open one of my books to a story of one woman’s experience having a day go bad fast. She decided to take a drive and ponder and pray. She felt guided by the Spirit to simply write her thoughts. First, she captured all the negativity, worry, and fear that was plaguing her, and then she felt prompted to write some testimony-based thoughts of what she knew and believed.

The idea came to have the girls do something similar, except to flip the order of what they wrote — to implement Elder Holland’s counsel to lead out with faith.

The young women were invited to silently read Elder Holland’s words for a few minutes, and to share what stood out to them. I then handed out a piece of paper to each person. They folded their papers in half and put “Lord, I Believe” at the top of the left-hand column.

And then I invited them to write what came to mind about their testimony. I gave them simple prompts like, What principles or truths help you in your life? What does your testimony include right now? What scriptures help you when you have a hard day?

They wrote and wrote and wrote.

I was hesitant to interrupt the writing, but I wanted to bring the process full circle back to sharing after watching this video. We divided the class into three circles of three and I invited them each to share with their little group something from their list, as they felt comfortable doing so. Some young women read their whole list, others shared one or two things and talked a little about it. We ended with a little more group discussion. It was wonderful to see how personal the process of pondering was for each person, and also how hearing others’ feelings spurred more thoughts and feelings. There was value in both the quiet self-reflection and also in sharing and testifying to one another. And I felt like the Lord had guided us to a simple tool that could be used on hard days or during hard times.

Elder Holland says,

In the growth we all have to experience in mortality, the spiritual equivalent of this boy’s affliction or this parent’s desperation is going to come to all of us. When those moments come and issues surface, the resolution of which is not immediately forthcoming, hold fast to what you already know and stand strong until additional knowledge comes. (Emphasis in original)

I was so grateful for the ideas that came with regard to this lesson, because right after church, my daughter was sad about something that had happened today at church. We are working hard in our home right now to help make sure that the children feel safe sharing their feelings, whatever they may be, so I wanted to listen attentively to her pain. But the thought came to invite my daughter to try this exercise, making it clear that the second column could be used to then write down her concerns and struggles, too.

She wrote and wrote.

And wrote.

She wrote four columns worth (two half pages, front and back) declaring her beliefs.

I hesitated to ask later if she’d be willing to share some of her list, because I didn’t want to enter her sacred space uninvited. But I did want her to feel that I cared and was willing to listen.

We curled up on my bed as she read me her list. And I wept at the power of her testimony. When I asked her about one of the most tender things she’d written — one of those things she’s desiring to believe but doesn’t quite feel it yet — she said that it wasn’t until she spoke the truth out loud that the truth settled more into her heart.

I’m grateful to Elder Holland for his simple, powerful teaching to let our faith lead out. I’m grateful for the Spirit who led me to use this talk. I’m grateful for the young women who are willing to engage and share and testify. And I’m grateful for the blessings that are flowing into my home because of this new curriculum. I encourage parents to tap into this amazing resource, including the training videos. Our children have much to teach us. We just need to find opportunities to invite them to do so.

The post Lord, I Believe! A “Come, Follow Me” lesson come home appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

There have been some great posts on motherhood published in the past few days, including a couple of unofficial transcripts from talks on motherhood given at the most recent BYU Women’s Conference. (It’s fun when Women’s Conference speakers are also bloggers and are willing and able to share their talks!)

We weren’t able to get all of the great Mother’s Day talks gathered and posted before Mother’s Day, so you get to enjoy more posts about motherhood over the next few days.

Here are the two #byuwc talks, the first by Cheryl Savage and the second by Catherine Arveseth.

In Which I Spoke to Women about Womanhood and Motherhood

Come Sighing and Singing – BYU Women’s Conference

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