A Mother Heart

Don't you love it when you're struck by something and it changes, at least a little bit, your perspective about your divine role? I don't get to attend Relief Society very often because I teach the darling 11 year olds on Sunday, so the snippets,  lessons, and articles in the Ensign are partially what fills my cup.

I loved this month's Visiting Teaching message. (For my readers that may not be members of my faith, click on the link to learn more about it). I love the visiting teaching program altogether. I love it that my new visiting teacher gave me my little snippet of a message lying out by the pool in Palm Springs this last weekend. I love it that this gospel gives us tools to strive to be our best and to reach out to others. I love it that if I stink at it one month, then I can strive to be better the next month. I love it that there's a 'higher plan' in this visiting teaching. I love it that it brings sisters in the gospel closer together to help bear one another's burdens. I love it that no matter where you live in this beautiful world, you will always have a 'visiting friend' and also get to go visit with others and leave a gospel message to help them through their hectic month. I love it when I develop a relationship with my visiting teachers and teachees that extend beyond a monthly visit.

And this month, I love the whole concept around having a 'mother heart.' Maybe I've been hiding under a rock, but I've never really dissected what having a 'mother heart' truly means...until yesterday morning. So I kept reading and reading and looking at references...and then I was late to sweet Amy T's house to excitedly deliver my message, but my heart truly was touched as now I have a name for what I've been striving for all along.Our General Relief Society President, Julie Beck said, "Every girl and woman who makes and keeps sacred covenants can have a mother heart. There is no limit to what a woman with a mother heart can accomplish. Righteous women have changed the course of history and will continue to do so, and their influence will spread and grow exponentially throughout the eternities."

I want to be like the woman she references in the above article who refines the role of nurturer to an art form.

"What is a mother heart and how is one acquired? We learn about some of those qualities in the scriptures. To paraphrase Proverbs: “Who can find a … woman [with a mother heart]? for her price is far above rubies. … She … worketh willingly with her hands. … With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. … She stretcheth out her hand to the poor. … Strength and honour are her clothing. … She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness” (Prov. 31:10, 13, 16, 20, 25–27).

She is “not weary in well-doing” and delights to serve her family, because she knows that “out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33).

Yes, I strive to be and do all of these things, but I just love the term associated with it, the vision I get in my head when I think of my own dear mother...I always want to strive to have that Mother Heart. I love the sentiment, "I know who I am and what I'm supposed to do. The rest just follows." And I love it that in an imperfect world with ups and downs, highs and lows, even when I am having a rough day actually questioning myself and not so much wanting to be a mom in the moment (...it happens more than I'd like to admit with six of them...and I know I'm not alone) that I know I can always come back the next day and keep on striving to have that wonderful, beautiful, eternal potential of a Mother Heart. It's become a common part of my prayers (sometimes I plead :) ) for Heavenly Father to help me see my children as HE sees them so I can teach them well and love them wholly....always. I feel like I have to close this post as I would a talk or a lesson or testimony...but I'm not gonna. There...said it in my head. Now go on....think about your 'Mother Heart' and enlighten me more.