Women of Destiny.

Somewhere amid the calming cries, scrubbing sinks, cooking dinner, and never getting showered til afternoon it becomes all too easy to forget that we are a women of purpose and of destiny. I love being a mother and wife more than anything. I feel blessed beyond measure to have the life I do, but on rare occasions it's easy to become caught up in the monotony of it all and to selfishly worry, as the world would have me do, that I am losing myself and not accomplishing much of anything.

Last night I was able to sit down and read Women of Destiny which is reflections on the Relief Society Declaration. It felt like a tender mercy sent from a loving Heavenly Father written just for me. There were many things I read that hit home so perfectly that I wanted to share with all the mothers out there who may occasionally have days that they need a spiritual pick me up.

President Joseph F. Smith said, "to do well those things which God ordained to be the common lot of all man-kind, is the truest greatness. To be a successful father or a successful mother is greater than to be a successful general or a successful statesman." My baby may not be able to talk and thus I may not be teaching him much of anything yet but he knows I am here and that I love him unconditionally and that is more important than anything else I could be doing with my time. Each day I am growing to understand what Elder Neal A. Maxwell meant when he said: "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 congress?"

"I know of no other place than home where more happiness can be found in this life. It is possible to make home a bit of heaven; indeed, I picture heaven to be a continuation of the ideal home." (President McKay) What greater divine purpose can we, as women, find in this life than making our home a piece of heaven? This is not monotonous; This can become our greatest accomplishment.

President Ezra Taft Benson put to rest any worry I had of my own lack of growth. He said, "Paradoxically, the more we serve one another, the greater is our spiritual and emotional growth." I am truly so grateful to be a mother and wife with so many opportunities in a day to serve my family and thus grow to a greater stature myself.

It is so important that as the declaration says, that we find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood. How grateful we should be to know that as woman we were sent to earth with some extra special qualities. President Faust observed that femininity "is the divine adornment of humanity. It finds expression in your...capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength." It gives me a greater reverence for motherhood and womanhood to know that each of us possess these attributes. It gives me greater courage to do well those things which God ordained. It gives me a greater sense of purpose as I scrub toilets and cook yucky raw meat. :) It gives me great hope to know that the Lord instilled in me these things to be a good mother and to raise my children in righteousness.

How grateful I am for the priceless gifts we have been blessed with as woman. I am thankful for a tender reminder of our divine purpose that came in the form of a book. I am also eternally grateful for a Father in Heaven who I know will lovingly continue to send these reminders to me: his daughter, who goes through each day trying her best but will undoubtedly need this reminder again.