I know, I know...

...I am a broken record. I don't know why I feel so strongly about family, and especially women's role in it, but I do, so it is on my mind a lot. As I was trying to decide if I should keep writing about the same subjet over and over, I thought about a quote that was in last month's visiting teaching message by Julie B. Beck, "As a disciple of Jesus Christ, every woman in this Church is given the responsibility for upholding, nurturing, and protecting families... And as a covenant-keeping Latter-day Saint woman, you know that raising your voice in defense of the doctrine of the family is critical to the strength of families the world over." It is our duty to defend families, especially now. So, here we go again.

Dr. Laura has a new book coming out, so she has been interviewed many times on the news shows I like to watch. Now I am not a 100% fan of her's, but I do agree with a lot of what she says, and more importantly, completely respect her defense of the family in our society today. Anyway, her new book is called In Praise of Stay-at-home Moms. She explained that one of the biggest reasons she wanted to write this book is because the world, especially women, view stay-at-home moms so negatively - as lazy, unintelligent, unimportant, unambitious, etc. But the most fulfilling thing we can do as women is have children, nurture them, and raise them. So, she wanted to recognize women who do that. Now I know that there are some women who do not have a choice as to whether or not they have to work. I am no judge. I do know, however, that in our world, the vast majority of women are chosing to work.

I think there are a couple things at work here. I think one major factor is that our world is very materialistic. Instead of a person's worth being measured by who they are - their character, values, etc - they are measured by what positions they hold and how much money and how many things they have. Therefore, to live up to this view from the world, a woman needs to work to afford the life that is deemed "successful." Dr. Laura talked a bit about this too, that being a stay-at-home mom requires sacrifice, no matter what your situation because you are giving up two incomes for one. But it is all in your attitude. Instead of eating out, having a picnic somewhere is just as worthwhile, and well within the budget of a one-income family, for example.

Another force I see behind this trend is the value of women in society. I read a talk by Sheri Dew years ago that I loved so much I typed up segments of it and taped it in my scriptures so I would have easy access to it. One thing she stated in it was, "Satan, of course, knows how spiritually potent the knowledge of our divine identity is. He hates us because of the influence we have on husbands and children, family and friends, the Church and even the world. It is no secret to him that we are the Lord's secret weapon...He wants us to believe that there is no status in being a mother. That is a lie, an evil lie. He wants us to believe that the influence of women is inherently inferior. And that is a lie." And what success has been had on that front. Our world has said that for a woman to mean anything, she has to be like a man, live like a man, work like a man. In contrast, we are taught to, "find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood" (Relief Society theme). We are women for a reason. We need to embrace our inherencies, our strengths, our abilities as women, and find joy in them. And we need to remind the world that women, living as women, are important and valuable to society, integral in fact.

I am so proud to be a woman. I know I have said it before, but it wasn't always so and I regret that. But I understand now the priviledge that is ours as women. I can honestly say that I have had NO greater joy in life than I have had in motherhood. And I think that is our blessing as women, to experience that joy and be the center of our families and homes. And I want the world to know it. I am a stay-at-home mom and that makes me a very imortant person. I am raising my children who will influence the world.