Sister
Hinckley has said this about motherhood:
“It
is the mothers of young children I would like to address first. These are
golden years for you. These are years when you will probably do the most
important work of your lives. Don’t wish away your years of caring for small
children. Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans. This is
a time of great opportunity for you to build the kingdom. When you teach
children to love their Heavenly Father, you have done one of the greatest
things you will ever do. If you can be a full-time homemaker, be grateful. If
not, you must do what is best for you. I for one have never felt a need to
apologize for my role as a full-time homemaker.
“These
are busy, busy days for you. I have seen women in all kinds of
circumstances—Chinese women working on road repairs, European women working in
the fields, Asian women sweeping streets—but it is my opinion that … Mormon
women are among the hardest working women in the world. They plant gardens and
they bottle the produce; they sew and bargain shop. They go on the heart fund
drive. They take dinners to new mothers and the sick in their neighborhoods.
They take care of aged parents. They climb Mount
Timpanogos with Cub Scouts, go to Little League games, sit on the
piano bench while Jennie practices, do temple work, and worry about getting
their journals up-to-date. My heart bursts with pride when I see them come into
church on Sunday, some as early as 8:30 in the morning, their children all
clean and shiny, their arms loaded with supplies, as they head for classes where
they teach other women’s children. They scrub their houses with little or no
domestic help and then try to be the glamour girl in their husband’s life when
he arrives home at night. But remember, my dear young friends, that you are now
doing the work that God intended you to do. Be grateful for the opportunity”
(“Building the Kingdom from a Firm Foundation,” in Mary E. Stovall and Carol
Cornwall Madsen, eds., As Women of Faith: Talks Selected from the BYU
Women’s Conferences, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1989, p. 5). L. Tom
Perry, 1995 April General Conference, An Elect Lady
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