From her Book “Remembering Eternal Identity” Kathy K. Clayton taught:
Sometimes even teachers and parents lose sight of their own divine nature and its implications. It’s easy to feel like a cardboard cutout with assorted colors of sticky notes stuck to every portion of ourselves, all screaming reminders of things we must do. Sometimes we are engaged with more anxiety than energy in the business of our tasks. The plethora of distractions keeps us from a cohesive, calm certainty of the divine nature of who we are and what we are trying to do as teachers and parents. .
A young boy noticed that his mom looked tired and careworn. With childlike insight and faith he reminded her, “Mommy, I know who you are. You are Heavenly Father’s special helper.” He was right. She was. And so are all parents and teachers.
Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said, “Those of us who have been entrusted with precious children have been given a sacred, noble stewardship, for we are the ones God has appointed to encircle with love and the fire of faith and an understanding of who they are.”1
Many women who don’t have the benefit of the formal teachings of the gospel have discovered the incomparable satisfaction that comes from embracing a divine identity. Maria Shriver shared her insights in an essay she wrote for Newsweek magazine titled “An Authentic Life.” She writes, “I was raised to believe that real power comes from your work, from a particular job or title. . . . I now understand that true power has very little to do with what’s on one’s résumé. It’s about being true to yourself. . . . The way you come to your power is through your life’s experiences and knowing who you are.”14
She goes on to say, “Motherhood is another tremendous source of power for women. For many in my generation, there was heavy emphasis on being a supermom—producing superkids who were in all the right activities and built the right résumés to get them into the right colleges. But I’m not sure enough respect and attention have been paid along the way to some of the simple acts traditionally with being a woman and a mother—the nurturing, the gentleness, the listening and the comforting. I think the bringing into the world a child who feels whole, who feels loved, who feels safe and who feels centered is the most powerful act of all.”15
Similarly, Jane Clayson Johnson, a prominent television personality, is quoted regarding the identity she most cherishes: “I want every woman to feel in her soul that among the many important things women do, mothering is the most important thing, whether a woman biologically bears a child or not.
. . . .Whether a woman is mothering her own children, a niece or nephew, or a neighbor down the street, whether she is a working mother or a single mother, society needs to place more value on the work of mothers—nurturing, teaching, caring for, and connecting with children.”16
In a poem written by William Ross Wallace, we read another testimony of the foundational influence of motherhood:
Infancy the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mothers first to guide the streamlets.
From them souls unresting grow—
Grow on for good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.17 ~William Ross Wallace
~Kathy K. Clayton, Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012) 37-38 (Continued re. fathers) (Note from Kent. . . . Parts of this may be a rerun—keeping track of what’s already posted is sometimes challenging!)
