This is a comment I received that offers some interesting food to digest. What do you think?<\/p>\n
“From Sis. Beck\u2019s \u201cMothers Who Know\u201d 2007 talk:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world\u2019s goods in order to spend more time with their children\u2014more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It seems to me if we are not able to fit a home \u201cpatterned after the temple\u201d with the things we bring into our lives and the choices we make, then there needs be some \u201cpruning\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n Sis. Ardeth Kapp, YW General President in 1990 gave the following words:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe read about the pioneers who, in the early history of the Church, left their possessions, \u201ctheir things,\u201d and headed west. Those who were with the handcart company who would push or pull their carts into the wilderness would give much thought to what they would make room for in their wagons and what they would be willing to leave behind. Even after the journey began, some things had to be unloaded along the way for people to reach their destination. \u201d (Packing Your Wagon, BYU devotional address, Nov 13, 1990)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIn our season of abundance and excess, even while we are counseled to reduce and simplify, there will be a high level of frustration until we understand the value of pruning. When someone asks the question, \u201cHow do you do it all?\u201d our answer should be, \u201cWe don\u2019t.\u201d We must be willing to let go of many things but defend with our lives the essentials.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cUntil we determine what is of greatest worth, we are caught up in the unrealistic idea that everything is possible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n History has shown over and over that there will be many voices in the world that profess to know what will bring us happiness and success. I think one of the ploys that the Adversary is using today is flooding us with new theories, strategies, and things we can do to improve the lives of our families, our children, our marriages and ourselves, but each one has a cost in time, energy, and other finite resources. If we can be fooled into thinking that the more of these things we engage or take in the happier we will be, we unwittingly burden ourselves with a \u201ctraffic-jam\u201d of things that promise to improve our lives, but in reality they just end up pushing out the essential things.<\/em><\/p>\n This is where faith comes into play. There are so many scientific studies that profess to help you raise your children, each using statistics and expert testimonies, as well as voices saying that the counsel to keep the house \u201ctidy\u201d and in order is just too much and too hard, and one shouldn\u2019t be expected to lift such a heavy burden in this day and age. One could easily see how it would be tempting to listen to these voices instead of exercising faith and remembering the promise in 1st Nephi 3:7.<\/em><\/p>\n If you look at the opportunities that you would have to leave behind if you were to invest the necessary time in homemaking, I think they will fall into a few categories: Less time with your family, less time for service outside the home, and less time for yourself\/ambitions.<\/em><\/p>\n Kathleen Slaugh Bahr has some wonderful and insightful articles (More Than Clean Windows: The Unrecognized Value Of Housework, Ensign, Oct 1985 and Family Work, BYU Magazine, Spring 2000) about how doing the work around the home together as a family actually builds stronger bonds than recreation. Sis. Beck also says \u201cworking beside children in homemaking tasks creates opportunities to teach and model qualities children should emulate\u201d. I don\u2019t think those opportunities can be taught in any other recreational or school setting without the foundation of them first developed at home. There are so many opportunities for meaningful discussion, singing songs, word games, telling jokes, and other bonding experiences during the very intimate work of feeding, clothing, caring for, and other things that sustain life and make the living worthwhile.<\/em><\/p>\n As far as the other things that would be given up, where would they rank according to Elder Oak\u2019s talk \u201cGood, Better, Best\u201d (Oct. 2007) or other counsel given on eternal priorities? My guess is that each one of them would fall under a lesser priority than the sacred work in the home, (hence David O. McKay\u2019s admonition that \u201cNo other success can compensate for failure in the home\u201d). This is particularly difficult when asked to choose between two \u201cgood\u201d things that seem equally important.\u00a0 However, I think if we pick the \u201cBest\u201d and \u201cBetter\u201d things first and we still have time for some of the \u201cGood\u201d things, then it may not really matter which one we pick \u2013 we will have sufficiently done those things necessary for leading our families toward salvation, so anything after that would just be icing on the cake.<\/em><\/p>\n One thing that women are bombarded from all sides on, (including within the culture of the Church as well) is the importance of talents and creativity. There are whole social circles who highly value (and almost worship) all things creative, and place the seemingly less rewarding things such as homemaking and keeping an orderly and tidy home below such pursuits as crafting, singing, liberal arts, talent development, etc.,(even Sis. Beck states those things as simple \u201cNice-to-do\u201d instead of essential or necessary in the 2010 BYU Woman\u2019s Conference). Contrast this philosophy with the following words from the apostles:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cA wise woman renews herself. In proper season, she develops her talents and continues her education. \u2026 A woman teaches priorities by precept and example.\u201d (Elder Russell M. Nelson \u2013 Nov 1989 Ensign)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBy the same token, a woman\u2019s righteous and appropriate desires to grow, to develop, and to magnify her talents \u2026 also have their extreme manifestations, which can lead to attempts to preempt priesthood leadership, to the advocacy of ideas out of harmony with Church doctrine, or even to the abandonment of family responsibilities.\u201d (Elder Dallin H. Oaks \u2013 Oct 1994 Ensign)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe Book of Ecclesiastes says: \u2018To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.\u2019 (Eccl. 3:1.) \u2026 The various roles of women have not decreased a woman\u2019s responsibility. While these roles are challenging, the central roles of wife and mother remain in the soul and cry out to be satisfied. It is in the soul to want to love and be loved by a good man and to be able to respond to the God-given, deepest feelings of womanhood\u2014those of being a mother and nurturer.\u201d (Elder James E. Faust \u2013 Sept 1986 Ensign)<\/em><\/p>\n There are also voices in the world that profess that unless we fight for our physical, emotional, social, mental, and monetary needs, then we will be doomed to a life of misery, poverty, loneliness, and depression.\u00a0 Basically, if we don’t watch out for ourselves, no one else will and we will suffer horribly forever.\u00a0 They try to convince us that we deserve to be healthy and “secure” in all these aspects, even if that means that we have to shirk our divine and seemingly mundane and unfulfilling duties.\u00a0 The world professes “if you’re unhappy, do something you like to do, no matter the cost”. The Lord teaches us to that His grace is sufficient for our daily needs, and beckons us to open our eyes to see things as they really are, and with such awareness open up the floodgates of gratitude for the ways that he sustains us, even lending every breath to us minute-by-minute.<\/em><\/p>\n Once again, fear and faith cannot co-exist, as long as we harbor the fear of not having enough. We will be in essence fulfilling our own prophecy because we will not have enough faith to trust in the Lord that he will provide for what we really need, and when we turn from the Lord then we will always be lonely, longing, and lustful.<\/em><\/p>\n I think everyone has to look at their actions, pursuits, ambitions, goals, values, and desires, and ask themselves a few hard questions:<\/em><\/p>\n Another way to think about it is when we go \u201cBeyond the Mark\u201d in some things, we misappropriate our limited resources to that which won\u2019t bear enough \u201cgood fruit\u201d to justify the cost, and we only have enough left to be \u201cLukewarm\u201d in others.”<\/em><\/p>\n I think everyone understands we each need to find our own way, but as we carefully consider the ideal, we hopefully will choose to incorporate all we can toward that ideal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a comment I received that offers some interesting food to digest. What do you think? “From Sis. Beck\u2019s \u201cMothers Who Know\u201d 2007 talk: \u201cMothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[477,425,476],"tags":[388,50,619],"class_list":["post-2851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-2","category-feature","category-womanhood","tag-attitude","tag-families","tag-motherhood"],"yoast_head":"\n\n