Defending Motherhood

May 8, 2017                                                     From a Relief Society lesson by Lindsey Flake Taylor

Defending Motherhood: The Doctrine of Motherhood

Testimony Cake(We gain a testimony of things a layer at a time): Motherhood is a Doctrine we should have a testimony of.

Sheri Dew: Are we not all mothers?:  ( She was never married, never had any kids.)

Have you ever wondered why prophets have taught the doctrine of motherhood—and it is doctrine—again and again? I have. I have thought long and hard about the work of women of God. And I have wrestled with what the doctrine of motherhood means for all of us. 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” 2 regarding the issues that swirl around our gender. For Satan has declared war on motherhood. 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.

Quote time: Divide in groups….read quote and then share an experience or thought you may have about this.

Sheri Dew: Are we not all Mothers? 2001

1)      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 all 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” 3 —and they did so before she ever bore a child. Like Eve, our motherhood began before we were born. Just as worthy men were foreordained to hold the priesthood in mortality, 4 righteous women were endowed premortally with the privilege of motherhood. 5 Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our very identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us.

-Draw on board Plan of Salvation and point out motherhood in the premortal world. Did we learn from our Mother in Heaven about the work we would do on earth?

2)      President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that “God planted within women something divine.” 6 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.” 7

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 Jr. declared, motherhood is “as divinely called, as eternally important in its place as the Priesthood itself.” 8

- Mother hood and Priesthood are equal and opposite. Two births, born and born again. One birth you need a mother, the next you need the priesthood . Two Trees in the garden of Eden.  Our society down plays womens gifts.

3)      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 should have had seed.” 9 And yet, imagine her anguish over Cain and Abel. Some mothers experience pain because of the children they have borne; 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.” 10

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.

-Some may wait till the next life…but through the covenants we are promised seed…enough to populate worlds. God’s glory is us….someday our glory will be our posterity…whether is this life or the next….does this put in perspective the power of women?

4)      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 women to follow, modeling the characteristics with which we as women have been endowed: heroic faith, a keen sensitivity to the Spirit, an abhorrence of evil, and complete selflessness. Like the Savior, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,” 11 Eve, for the joy of helping initiate the human family, endured the Fall. She loved us enough to help lead us.

(It still takes courage to have children). She knew what she was getting into and still did it.

5)      As daughters of our Heavenly Father, and as daughters of Eve, we are all mothers and we 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 them the virtue of our virtues? Every one of us has an overarching obligation to model righteous womanhood because our youth may not see it anywhere else.

“Guardians of the Hearth”: Establishing, Nurturing, and Defending the Family

To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling. … She has been placed here to help to enrich, to protect, and to guard the home—which is society’s basic and most noble institution.

Gaurdians of the Hearth!

?What does it mean to you to defend the family? What are some ways to do that?

Hiking Story: After hearing Sister Oscarsons talk in general conference, I decided to pray about being more bold in defending the family. Our family went hiking at Hawes trail on a Saturday. I had just got a new mountain bike and we decided to bring it along so I could try it out. I rode up ahead on the trail while the rest of my family walked the trail. This was a blessing because what I saw 5 minutes down the trail totally stunned and confused me. There was a women wearing hardly anthing standing up on the hill while a man was photographing her. I couldn’t belive my eyes. I kept rideing while processing this and then decided someone needed to tell these people whats up, especially since my family was coming down this trail soon. I would normally feel extremely nervous to do something like this….but the spirit filled me with so much courage that I actually felt excted. I rode right up to them and told them what they were doing was extremely  inappropriate, that there were families all around on this trail, including my own, and that they needed to leave. The women started dressing but the guy started talking back, but the women stopped him and said, “I’ts ok…lets go.” I could tell she was embarrassed and ashamed. I was happy they decided to leave and could not believe the courage that I was filled with and how good it felt to stand up for morality and family in a sin sick world.

Defending the family can be little things too….not going to Carls Jr. because you don’t want to support their pornographic advertisements, not watching or listeing to shows that are immoral or belittle the parents and families role (when you watch something immoral you are supporting immorality because you are telling the company who made that show that you are ok with it, therefore they keep doing it), not complaining about your children with your friends. Etc…

We need to live by our principles and talk positively about the womens role.

Extra good quotes and talks on women and motherhood:

Rise up in Strength, Sisters of Zion Sister Oscarson

President Russell M. Nelson told us a year ago: “Attacks against the Church, its doctrine, and our way of life are going to increase. Because of this, we need women who have a bedrock understanding of the doctrine of Christ and who will use that understanding to teach and help raise a sin-resistant generation. We need women who can detect deception in all of its forms. We need women who know how to access the power that God makes available to covenant keepers and who express their beliefs with confidence and charity. We need women who have the courage and vision of our Mother Eve.”⁷

This message reassures me that despite the conditions of our day, we have many reasons to rejoice and be optimistic. I believe with all of my heart that we sisters do have the innate strength and faith that will allow us to meet the challenges of living in the last days. Sister Sheri Dew has written, “I believe that the moment we learn to unleash the full influence of converted, covenant-keeping women, the kingdom of God will change overnight.”⁸

It will take concerted effort to be converted and to keep our covenants. To do so, we need to be girls and women who study the essential doctrines of the gospel and have an unshakable testimony of their truthfulness.

President Packer/ Nelson declared:

“We need women who are organized and women who can organize. We need women with executive ability who can plan and direct and administer; women who can teach, women who can speak out. …

“We need women with the gift of discernment who can view the trends in the world and detect those that, however popular, are shallow or dangerous.”⁸

Today, let me add that we need women who know how to make important things happen by their faith and who are courageous defenders of morality and families in a sin-sick world. We need women who are devoted to shepherding God’s children along the covenant path toward exaltation; women who know how to receive personal revelation, who understand the power and peace of the temple endowment; women who know how to call upon the powers of heaven to protect and strengthen children and families; women who teach fearlessly.

Elder Holland: Behold Thy Mother

Prophesying of the Savior’s Atonement, Isaiah wrote, “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”¹ A majestic latter-day vision emphasized that “[Jesus] came into the world … to bear the sins of the world.”² Both ancient and modern scripture testify that “he redeemed them, and bore them, and carried them all the days of old.”³ A favorite hymn pleads with us to “hear your great Deliv’rer’s voice!”⁴

Bear, borne, carry, deliver. These are powerful, heartening messianic words. They convey help and hope for safe movement from where we are to where we need to be—but cannot get without assistance. These words also connote burden, struggle, and fatigue—words most appropriate in describing the mission of Him who, at unspeakable cost, lifts us up when we have fallen, carries us forward when strength is gone, delivers us safely home when safety seems far beyond our reach. “My Father sent me,” He said, “that I might be lifted up upon the cross; … that as I have been lifted up … even so should men be lifted up … to … me.”⁵

But can you hear in this language another arena of human endeavor in which we use words like bear and borne,carry and lift,labor and deliver? As Jesus said to John while in the very act of Atonement, so He says to us all, “Behold thy mother!”⁶

Today I declare from this pulpit what has been said here before: that no love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child. When Isaiah, speaking messianically, wanted to convey Jehovah’s love, he invoked the image of a mother’s devotion. “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” he asks. How absurd, he implies, though not as absurd as thinking Christ will ever forget us.⁷

This kind of resolute love “suffereth long, and is kind, … seeketh not her own, … but … beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”⁸ Most encouraging of all, such fidelity “never faileth.”⁹ “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,” Jehovah said, “but my kindness shall not depart from thee.”¹⁰ So too say our mothers.

You see, it is not only that they bear us, but they continue bearing with us. It is not only the prenatal carrying but the lifelong carrying that makes mothering such a staggering feat. Of course, there are heartbreaking exceptions, but most mothers know intuitively, instinctively that this is a sacred trust of the highest order. The weight of that realization, especially on young maternal shoulders, can be very daunting.

A wonderful young mother recently wrote to me: “How is it that a human being can love a child so deeply that you willingly give up a major portion of your freedom for it? How can mortal love be so strong that you voluntarily subject yourself to responsibility, vulnerability, anxiety, and heartache and just keep coming back for more of the same? What kind of mortal love can make you feel, once you have a child, that your life is never, ever your own again? Maternal love has to be divine. There is no other explanation for it. What mothers do is an essential element of Christ’s work. Knowing that should be enough to tell us the impact of such love will range between unbearable and transcendent, over and over again, until with the safety and salvation of the very last child on earth, we can [then] say with Jesus, ‘[Father!] I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.’¹¹ ”