My Yorktown Talk March 08

President Ezra Taft Benson taught that young couples should not postpone having children and that “in the eternal perspective, children—not possessions, not position, not prestige—are our greatest jewels.” To the Mothers in Zion (pamphlet, 1987)

My husband and I joined the church in 1985, the year we got married. He was 22 and I was 17. We came from a different world than the world in which my kids are growing up in...even a different time. We weren’t raised in the church. We had no Family Home Evenings, family prayer, family anything growing up and no primary or youth organizations to teach us all we needed to know and do to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. It was the LDS missionaries who taught us much of what we were lacking. The fellowship of the members of our little branch and then a new ward, when we moved that helped us as we tried to live the new standards we adopted as our values. We learned a lot about what the Mormon church teaches by reading church publications, and by studying the scriptures. When we got married, we wanted to have a baby. When we joined the LDS Church, we found we SHOULD have children. But we also felt unprepared and maybe even unworthy.

I read something Brigham Young once said that gave me much peace in those early years. He said: "The Church can make a bad man good and make a good man better." I’ve always been so thankful for that reassurance, and I’ve hoped, over the years, that I became a good man when I was baptized and I’ve been becoming a better man ever since.

I was 5.5 months pregnant with our oldest son, Daniel when my husband and I were sealed together for time and all eternity in the Oakland temple in 1987. I’m so grateful that my children have been born in the covenant of that sealing. I’ve enjoyed the years I’ve been a mother and am grateful and I am looking forward to having many more years ahead with children in my home…and hopefully, many, many grandchildren who will come to visit often. Children are such a blessing. Many of the greatest joys in my life have been relative to my being a mother to my children. What greater joy can a woman feel than when she holds a newborn baby close and whispers the first earthly message into the ears of one so fresh from the bosom of the Father? How special it is to be the first one to whisper the sweet message of Jesus Christ in infant ears! Through motherhood, I’ve come to understand what that message of Christ to us all is. The message is: I love you. Our Savior, our brother loves us. Our Father loves us. And so we are commanded to love each other. We are commanded to teach our children to love. It is through love that we are able to return to the presence of Father in Heaven. If we love Him, we will keep His commandments. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…
It is my responsibility, as a mother in Zion, to create a climate for spiritual and temporal growth in the home. As a mother with many children, I often look for opportunities to teach my children to serve (mainly to help me out here and there). I think of the poem President Monson has recited in general conference.

Which Loved Best by Joy Allison
“I love you, Mother,” said little [John];
Then, forgetting his work, his cap went on,
And he was off to the garden swing,
Leaving her the water and wood to bring.
“I love you, Mother,” said rosy Nell—
“I love you better than tongue can tell”;
Then she teased and pouted full half the day,
Till her mother rejoiced when she went to play.
“I love you, Mother,” said little Fan;
“Today I’ll help you all I can;
How glad I am that school doesn’t keep!”
So she rocked the babe till it fell asleep.
Then, stepping softly, she fetched the broom,
And swept the floor and tidied the room;
Busy and happy all day was she,
Helpful and happy as child could be.
“I love you, Mother,” again they said,
Three little children going to bed;
How do you think that Mother guessed
Which of them really loved her best?

Teaching children to work is one thing. Teaching children to serve in the spirit of love is another challenge. Yet, we are called upon to do it.

In (3 Ne. 11:28–30)the Master instructed: “There shall be no disputations among you.
“For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away”

Many times we’ve struggled, and I’m sure will continue to struggle to keep contention out of our home. I remember a hymn called “Truth Reflects Upon our Senses” that says: It requires a constant labor all His precepts to obey. I’m comforted that we aren’t the only ones who feel it’s a constant labor. One of our favorite passages to share with our children during a difficult sibling moment comes from Mosiah 4:14-15, which says "And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the devil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness. But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another."

I like to read that to my kids and tell them they are causing me to be disobedient to Heavenly Father when they fight and quarrel with each other. It guilts them into behaving for a little while, at least.

Before I joined the Church, I didn’t know much about how to live a good life. There are some days, even now that I feel like I still don’t know what I’m doing. But, I know the Lord knows what He is doing. I know, when I have questions, I can ask Him for guidance and He will guide me. I know many answers are in the scriptures, ready for me to open the pages and find them. I know the Lord’s servants, the Prophet, the Stake President, the Bishop and Branch President often speak the answers to my questions. And I know that the greatest learning any of us can ever do is to learn that which is taught to us by the Spirit of Truth. For we know that by the Power of the Holy Ghost, we may know the truth of all things. (Mosiah 10)

I know Father in Heaven loves us. We are His children. He wants us to find our way back home. He hasn't just dumped us here on this earth to wander blindly in the hope of lucking into eternal happiness. He has given us the plan by which we may reenter His presence. He has given us a plan for happiness. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, restored in its fullness in these, the last days of earth.

God, the Father lives. Jesus is the Christ. Joseph Smith is the Prophet who ushered in this last dispensation. Thomas S. Monson is the Lord's living Prophet today. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. These are things I know in my heart and in my mind to be true. I bear you this testimony in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.