Why Mothers Are Important

Just want to start this week with something I read in the December's issue of the Liahona magazine.
"E.T. Sullivan once wrote these interesting words: "When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, 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 the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies."
And those babies, I should like to add, will become forces for good or ill, depending in large measure on how they are reared."
President Gordon B. Hinckley (President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

Mamas Bag of Tricks

• Your children are not just children. They are "the greatest forces in the world." Yes, you DO hold the power to change this world to a better place. Don't underestimate the power of your influence.
• Are you rearing your children to become "forces for good or ill?"
• Who is the greatest influence in your children's lives? You or someone else?
• YES, it is worth it to invest your time in your children.

Another story in the magazine that touched my heart:

"The story is told that in ancient Rome a group of women were, with vanity, showing their jewels one to another. Among them was Cornelia, the mother of two boys. One of the women said to her, "And where are your jewels?" To which Cornelia responded, pointing to her sons, "These are my jewels." Under her tutelage and walking after the virtues of her life, they grew to become Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus - the Gracchi, as they were called -- two of the most persuasive and effective reformers in Roman history. For as long as they are remembered and spoken of, the mother who reared them after the manner of her own life will be remembered and spoken of with praise also."

WATCH YOUR JEWELS!