Mothers

Since I am a SAHM, my thoughts are often drawn to how I can be a better mother. I wish I was a perfect mother--alas I fall short in numerous areas that would take far too much time to go into right now. But I'm always trying to do better which I guess is all we can do sometimes. Anyway, to get on with my point in this post. Elder Ballard gave a talk that I LOVED in the April 2008 General Conference entitled "Daughters of God". I'll insert a link to it later if I figure out how! Here are a few quotes from it:

"There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. Many are able to be “full-time moms,” at least during the most formative years of their children’s lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part- or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else."

"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11)."

Well I'm going to have to cut my thoughts short cause I've got a little guy here screaming for attention--literally!