As I stated in my previous post, I watched the General Women's Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They spent a lot of time talking about families, as this year marks the twentieth anniversary of The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
This proclamation is an explanation of the divine roles of each family member and of each gender. It goes over a lot of good information. I highly recommend everyone read and review it. I will post a link to it at the end of this post.
Because this was a women's conference, the speakers all focused on women and women's roles. This drew my thoughts to some of my heroes from the scriptures. I would like to tell you what each of these women taught me.
Esther. We all know the story of Esther. She was a Jew, and through a series of divine intervention circumstances (though I doubt they felt that way to her at the time) she became the Queen. After a time, enemies of the Jews created plans to destroy the Jews in that nation. Esther had her people and all her servants fast with her for several days. Then, she went to her husband the King. This was at great personal risk, as she was unsummoned, and the law was that anyone coming to the kimg without permission could be killed. However, instead of receiving punishment, she was welcomed to the presence of the King. She invited the king to a dinner, and after time informed him that she was a Jew, and that her people were in danger. Again, this was at great personal risk. It was not known that she was a Jew, and she could have been spared the fate of her people had she kept it a secret. Instead, she made it known. As a result, she was able to save her people. From Esther I learn two things. 1) Courage is great in the sight of God. It takes courage to stand up for what is right, especially when right is not popular. In today's world, there are many view points, and to stand for God's laws can seem politically incorrect or old-fashioned. 2) Fasting and prayer can give us courage in times when we lack it of our own strength. This can be courage to stand for the right, courage to face trials, or courage to face the normal day to day tasks we have at hand.
Abish. Not very many people are aware of the story of Abish, as she has just a quick mention in the Book of Mormon during the story of very popular Book of Mormon prophet/hero. When Ammon went to teach the Lamanites the gospel, he became a servant to the king. Through great sacrifice and strength, he earned the trust of the king. He taught the king and the king of the Lamanites received such a strong witness of the gospel the he was overcome and fell to the ground. Those in the court with him also prayed and received such strong witnesses of the gospel that they were also overcome and fell to the ground. In fact, Abish was the only one present that did not become overcome in this way. The Book of Mormon explains that Abish had been converted to the gospel many years before due to a remarkable vision of her father. Abish went and told the people what had happened to the king in hopes of converting the entire land to the gospel. However, when she returned to the palace, she was dismayed to find the people fighting and blaming this 'evil' on Ammon, who they said was a demon or a devil. Abish defied this argument and went and took the queen by the hand, raising her up. The queen then raised her husband up. All those who had been overcome rose and testified, and the people were converted. The reason I love the story of Abish so much is twofold. 1) She had been converted for years in a country where believers of the gospel were outcasts and often put to death. She had to believe secretly, but just because she was alone didn't mean she was weak in faith or testimony. We will often have to stand alone. But, like Abish, we are never weak when we stand with Christ. 2) Abish had the courage to face the angry mob and raise the queen up. This would have been very scary, I would think. People were talking about killing, and siding with the one they wanted to kill could not have been an easy choice to make. But she did it, and as a direct result, people were converted to Christ.
There are many other heroes, of course. But these are the ones that most often come to my mind. I like to think what these two women would have been like as wives and mothers, and then strive to do the same things I can imagine them doing.
Let us all choose good people as heroes and then strive to emulate them. It makes it easier to be good when you have an example that you can see facing the exact same situation you are currently facing. Just a thought. :)
As promised, the link to The Family: A Proclamation to the World is here
Sunday, March 29, 2015
The HomeMaker
This weekend was the Women's General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This always preceds our General Conference by one week and is an awesome way to begin preparing to hear the words of the prophets.
One of the talks given at this conference really touched me. The speaker, whose name I forget, was telling about a mother who applied to her daughter's school to be a presenter for Career Day. Her career was a mother. She went to two classrooms and spoke about all the things a mother has to know- medicine, psychology, culinary arts, chauffering, etc. The next year, she was invited to present in six classrooms. As the speaker concluded this story, they showed a picture of this mother with her career day badge on. It had her name, and as her career listed Homemaker.
For some reason, this picture with this name tag really struck me. I've always thought of the word homemaker to be a synonym with other terms- mother, stay-at-home-mom, and housewife. But as I stared at this name badge, I realized that a homemaker is NOT these other things. A woman can be all those things at the same time, but they truly are different things.
I struggle to find the words to describe exactly what I mean, so let me slip into English teacher mode for a moment while I try to explain myself. Look at the word. It's a compound word, comprised of two smaller words: Home, and Maker. Put together in this way, it literally means one who makes a home. To further explain my thinking, let's define home. A home is not a house or dwelling or where we reside. A home is a place of comfort, tranquility, support, and love. A home is a place where you feel safe emotionally, where you learn and grow and thrive. A home is where you learn of God, learrn to be like God, and learn to love God.
This really makes a homemaker a special person. We often think of homemakers as women because the term is used synonymously with the other terms I listed above. But it doesn't have to be a woman or mother. It can be anyone who makes a home. In addition, not every mother is automatically also a home maker, whether they choose to be a housewife or stay-at-home mom or not. Just because a woman works outside the home does not mean she is not a homemaker.
I grew up fortunate enough to have a mother who was both a stay-at-home-mom/housewife AND a homemaker. I remember HATING practicing the piano before school, but there she was making sure I did it. And you know what, as an adult, I can't thank her enough for being so 'mean' when I was little. I remember not always liking what she made for dinner (I was VERY picky), but always having healthy food to eat and someone to motivate me to eat just one more bite. I remember holding Family Home Evenings weekly where we learned as a family about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We memorized the ten commandments and the Articles of Faith. We learned the scripture stories. We even learned to teach, as my parents encouraged my sister and me to teach the lesson once a month. We even learned to lead music in Family Home Evening. And if I ever came home from school crying, I had her there to comfort me and cheer me up.
I hope to be able to give the same gift to my children. Thinking about all this made me feel guilty, as I haven't been as good as my mom was at things like keeping the house clean (she was mean and made me pick up and dust UNDER items). I also haven't been as good at reading the scriptures with my kids as my parents were with me. But right there with the guilt is the comfort of the Atonement. Each day is a new day. Our Savior doesn't care how we were in the past as long as we repent and change for the better. That was why he suffered in Gethsemane for us.
Thanks to all the mothers and homemakers out there. The world owes you a big thank you.
If you would like to watch this Women's Conference, I highly recommend it. It is AMAZING. The link to it is here.
One of the talks given at this conference really touched me. The speaker, whose name I forget, was telling about a mother who applied to her daughter's school to be a presenter for Career Day. Her career was a mother. She went to two classrooms and spoke about all the things a mother has to know- medicine, psychology, culinary arts, chauffering, etc. The next year, she was invited to present in six classrooms. As the speaker concluded this story, they showed a picture of this mother with her career day badge on. It had her name, and as her career listed Homemaker.
For some reason, this picture with this name tag really struck me. I've always thought of the word homemaker to be a synonym with other terms- mother, stay-at-home-mom, and housewife. But as I stared at this name badge, I realized that a homemaker is NOT these other things. A woman can be all those things at the same time, but they truly are different things.
I struggle to find the words to describe exactly what I mean, so let me slip into English teacher mode for a moment while I try to explain myself. Look at the word. It's a compound word, comprised of two smaller words: Home, and Maker. Put together in this way, it literally means one who makes a home. To further explain my thinking, let's define home. A home is not a house or dwelling or where we reside. A home is a place of comfort, tranquility, support, and love. A home is a place where you feel safe emotionally, where you learn and grow and thrive. A home is where you learn of God, learrn to be like God, and learn to love God.
This really makes a homemaker a special person. We often think of homemakers as women because the term is used synonymously with the other terms I listed above. But it doesn't have to be a woman or mother. It can be anyone who makes a home. In addition, not every mother is automatically also a home maker, whether they choose to be a housewife or stay-at-home mom or not. Just because a woman works outside the home does not mean she is not a homemaker.
I grew up fortunate enough to have a mother who was both a stay-at-home-mom/housewife AND a homemaker. I remember HATING practicing the piano before school, but there she was making sure I did it. And you know what, as an adult, I can't thank her enough for being so 'mean' when I was little. I remember not always liking what she made for dinner (I was VERY picky), but always having healthy food to eat and someone to motivate me to eat just one more bite. I remember holding Family Home Evenings weekly where we learned as a family about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We memorized the ten commandments and the Articles of Faith. We learned the scripture stories. We even learned to teach, as my parents encouraged my sister and me to teach the lesson once a month. We even learned to lead music in Family Home Evening. And if I ever came home from school crying, I had her there to comfort me and cheer me up.
I hope to be able to give the same gift to my children. Thinking about all this made me feel guilty, as I haven't been as good as my mom was at things like keeping the house clean (she was mean and made me pick up and dust UNDER items). I also haven't been as good at reading the scriptures with my kids as my parents were with me. But right there with the guilt is the comfort of the Atonement. Each day is a new day. Our Savior doesn't care how we were in the past as long as we repent and change for the better. That was why he suffered in Gethsemane for us.
Thanks to all the mothers and homemakers out there. The world owes you a big thank you.
If you would like to watch this Women's Conference, I highly recommend it. It is AMAZING. The link to it is here.
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