http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405942,00.html

What will the future bring? Hopefully, families will not go the way of many parts of Europe, and drive themselves into extinction. Julie B. Beck, President of the LDS Relief Society (a women’s organization with hundreds of thousands of members), said it this way:

Mothers Who Know Bear Children

Mothers who know desire to bear children. Whereas in many cultures in the world children are “becoming less valued,”² in the culture of the gospel we still believe in having children. Prophets… have declared that “God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.”³ 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.”⁴

Faithful daughters of God desire children. In the scriptures we read of Eve (see Moses 4:26), Sarah (see Genesis 17:16), Rebekah (see Genesis 24:60), and Mary (see 1 Nephi 11:13–20), who were foreordained to be mothers before children were born to them. Some women are not given the responsibility of bearing children in mortality, but just as Hannah of the Old Testament prayed fervently for her child (see 1 Samuel 1:11), the value women place on motherhood in this life and the attributes of motherhood they attain here will rise with them in the Resurrection (see D&C 130:18). Women who desire and work toward that blessing in this life are promised they will receive it for all eternity, and eternity is much, much longer than mortality. There is eternal influence and power in motherhood.

Bearing and raising children is not popular in today’s world. Venues and services cater less and less to families with children. For example, there was a recent story in the national news about airline services that separate children and parents from those traveling without children. Many people, including parents, lauded the idea. But what does this say about society’s view– that children are a “nuisance” and should not be heard OR seen?! Are adults without children so easily annoyed that they cannot tolerate non-adults? Why?

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach talks about this issue in a recent article here:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49074

It is my view that as society continues to disregard the value of children, that cultures, traditions, and morals will continue to be lost. What ideas and thoughts get passed down if no one bears children? Who takes care of the future elderly? Who then moves into influence and power if people today refuse to provide the earth with the people of tomorrow? There ARE people in today’s society who value children and raise large families. Their children will be the ones to create the world of the future.

While my husband and I did not have a large family in order to change society, the things that we are teaching our children though our family culture will have an impact on future generations. Don’t get me wrong– it is NOT without sacrifices! But hopefully my children will realize and understand that children are of great value, that families can have an impact for good, and that each one was welcomed to our home with open arms.

Family size is really immaterial– it is the attitude that is really important. Do we feel our children are bothersome? Do we speak negatively about them and the care and attention they require? (They DO hear our complaints, even when we think they don’t.) Do we resent the sacrifices that come with being a mother? Are we so focused on the annoyance of the moment, that we lose sight of the grander scheme of eternity? We’re all guilty of these tendencies, but we CAN choose to change our hearts and our attitudes. We can choose to see ourselves as the great mothers of nations or as martyrs of our “what-could-have-beens.” Will our daughters and sons want to be parents someday, or are we telling them that children are just too much trouble to bother with.

Children are an asset– not a liability. If we can help ourselves AND others see that, we very well could change the world. One mother at a time…

http://ccostello.blogspot.com/2008/06/why-men-dont-court-women-anymore.html

Ladies, do we allow our husbands to “court” us? Do we treat them as MEN, the heads of our family, or do we follow the trends of society at large, and leave our husbands feeling useless? Do we expect them to step in and take over our work, without letting them be our knights in shining armor?

Men want to provide for their families. They want to protect us, and they want us to let them be who God designed them to be. We can show our love and appreciation for all they do by creating a haven for them at the end of a long day of “fighting dragons” for us and our children.

And here is another article about the way society, especially the media, continues to emasculate the men in our lives by portraying them as weak-minded, crass, and unneeded.

http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/Feminism_and_Related_Issues_5/Feminism_s_Television_Intrusion1003328.shtml

What are we teaching our sons and daughters about the roles of husband and father? Something to ponder today.

I really like this commercial they’re now airing in Germany. But how sad it is that their government needs to come out and try to convince people that children are important. I pray that our dear USA will never get to this place, but at the rate we’re going…

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=fTh92FnV_i4&feature=user

(I tried to add the video, but it kept disfiguring the blog. Maybe I’ll try again later.)

I found a fun “30’s Housewife” test thanks to my friend Suzanne and her blog at http://nightingalescage.blogspot.com/ . (Hi Suzanne!)

I hope you all enjoy taking it!

http://www.magatsu.net/maritaltest/

My results are:

118 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

“Paul’s words sprang to my mind, words that had burned into me years before at the start of my fourth pregnancy, when I was wondering how I would ever manage another baby.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1).

Present your body as a living sacrifice. Sacrifice: the word comes from the Latin sancire, meaning to make sacred. That’s exactly what I was doing: offering my very flesh and blood to God, to meet his purposes, to fulfill the desires for children he had planted within me.”

http://www.ldsmag.com/articles/080527sacrifice.html

I am finishing my review of this enlightening book, so check back soon!

“The spiritual rewards of motherhood are available to all women. Nurturing the young, comforting the frightened, protecting the vulnerable, teaching and giving encouragement need not– and should not– be limited to our own children.” – Elder Russell M. Nelson

“Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Discipline is not just a matter of punishment for wrongdoing, but of teaching our youth not to do wrong in the first place.” – Gordon B. Hinckley

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.” –Anthony Brandt

“She who is the mother and housekeeper in a large family is the sovereign of an empire, demanding more varied cares, and involving more difficult duties, than are really exacted of her who wears a crown and professedly regulates the interests of the greatest nation on earth.” –The American Woman’s Home, 1869

“Survey our empire and behold our home!” — Lord Byron

“Please don’t nag yourself with thoughts of failure. Do not set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. Simply do what you can do, in the best way you know, and the Lord will accept your effort.” –Gordon B. Hinckley (Ensign, November 1989, p. 96.)

“There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.”
–Winston Churchill

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers … exist for one purpose only — and that is to support this ultimate career.” – C.S. Lewis

“God has implanted deep in the souls of parents the truth that they cannot with impunity shirk the responsibility to protect childhood and youth. There seems to be a growing tendency to shift this responsibility from the home to outside influences, such as the school and the church. Important as these outward influences are, they never can take the place of the influence of the mother and the father.” –David O. McKay

“Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.” –Margaret D. Nadauld (YW General President)

“When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses?” — Neal A. Maxwell

“Keep the fire of your testimony of the restored gospel and your witness of our Redeemer burning so brightly that our children can warm their hands by the fire of your faith.”
–President Boyd K. Packer

“How can you have too many children? That’s like saying there are too many flowers”
– Mother Teresa

“When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants discovering, God sends a baby into the world to do it. While most of the thousands of precious infants born every hour will never be known outside their neighborhoods, there are great souls being born who will rise above their surroundings…..one mother gives us a Shakespeare, another a Michelangelo, and other an Abraham Lincoln. When theologians are reeling and stumbling, when lips are pretending and hearts are wandering, and people are running to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord and cannot find it - when clouds of error need dissipating and spiritual darkness needs penetrating and heavens need opening, a little infant is born.” –Spencer W. Kimball

I grew up in Idaho– Potato Country. And this dish could be found at almost any church or civic function. (They’re also known as “Funeral Potatoes,” due to their propensity for being served at funerals, as well.)

I enjoy making this delicious casserole as a side dish, or even as the main course*. (In our home, we have to double the recipe.) Try them today– I know your family will love them!

8 to 10 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 can (10 & 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1 cup sour cream

3 green onions, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil; cover and cook until almost tender. (Don’t over-cook.) Drain and cool. Combine soup, half of the cheese (1&1/2 cups) sour cream, onions, salt and pepper. Stir in potatoes. Place in a greased 9″x13″ baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Serves 8-10.

*We like to add cubed ham before baking for a full-meal casserole. These are also wonderful served with a Baked Ham.

One of my favorite quotes of all time was written by a man named E.T. Sullivan at the turn of the 20th Century. I hope it inspires you in your mothering efforts today!

“A century ago men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon, and waiting with feverish impatience for news of the wars. And all the while, in their own homes, babies were born. But who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles.”

“In one year, midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes. Gladstone was born in Liverpool, Tennyson at the Somersby Rectory, and Oliver Wendell Holmes in Massachusetts; and the very same day of that same year Charles Darwin made his debut at Shrewsbury, and Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath in old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Felix Mendelssohn at Hamburg”

“But nobody though of babies; everybody was thinking of battles. Yet which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809. We fancy that God can only manage His world with big battalions when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies. When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world …perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.“

(Please note: This is a repeat of an article I wrote on another blog over a year ago. I want to share it here, because I feel it is very applicable to mothers like us who are doing our best to be a force for good in the world and our homes– though we usually fall short, simply because we are human. I need to be reminded from time to time that God accepts my efforts, imperfect though they are.)

I am a perfectionist.

I hate it when things don’t go the way I think they should. I get so angry at myself, and the self-loathing starts. Then I can’t seem to do anything “right.” So I do nothing. My kids suffer, my house suffers, my poor husband suffers, and I suffer.

So I am trying to look at things in my life in a more reasonable way. I am not perfect now, and will never be in this life– perfection is for the next life.

Tuesday morning I woke up early with a panic attack about some little matter that I had not resolved. Luckily, I was able to get back to sleep while nursing my baby. But when I woke up at about 7am, the black cloud engulfed me. “I can’t do anything right. Why did I think I could get — accomplished? Why did I volunteer to help with—? I always mess things up.”

On and on these dark thoughts battered me. I thought of the sink of dirty dishes I had left undone, the laundry I had forgotten about, the reading I didn’t accomplish, the weight I need to lose, etc. I began to cry. My wonderful husband– heaven bless him– comforted me. He found some essential oils to help me emotionally, and proceeded to rub my feet. I began to feel a bit better. The black cloud lifted slightly, and I could see a ray of light peeking through!

Then I asked my true love to give me a priesthood blessing, and the Lord spoke beautiful words through him. I was reminded that my Father in Heaven loves me, and does not expect perfection of me. He knows I have great potential and infinite worth, and that I should never forget that. I was also told that the adversary desires to have me, and bringing me down in the depths of despair is one way that he can get to me.

My home is never going to be 100% clean for more than a brief instant. The laundry will never be “done,” and I will never spend all the time I wish I could studying. It’s okay! Only today will my toddler grasp my neck and say “I wuzsch you, Mama!” Only today will my daughter have her first church youth activity. Only now will my ten-year-old son ask me what new book on the shelf he should read next, my baby to smile big enough to show her dimples, my little artist to beg for some space on the fridge, my four-year-old to grin mischieviously, my son to make “Silly Putty” in the kitchen, and my five-year-old to ask for help with his paper airplane.

LIFE IS GOOD! And “good” does not have to be “perfect” to bring me JOY.

What a relief…