April 2010 Conference

One day I was listening to some old general conference talks from last April's session and the two talks I heard buoyed up my resolved to be the best mother that I can. I had forgotten that this session in particular seemed to call parents to a higher plane of teaching and raising righteous children. Maybe this felt like the theme to me because I have small ones at home that I know I can still greatly influence. The two talks that I reviewed were by Elder Wirthlin and Elder Foster.

In Elder Wirthlin's message the most memorable part for me was the admonition, "The saddest words of tongue and pen are those that say, "It might have been!"" He recounted a mother's wish that she would have more fully helped her older daughters with their personal progress goals after realizing the bond it forged between her and her youngest when they worked on it together.

In a memorable talk by Elder Foster, entitled Mother Told Me he tells sweet stories of the obedience of children and animals he has observed to their mothers' guidance. This was a great excerpt:

"As President James E. Faust said: “There is no greater good in all the world than motherhood. The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation” (“Fathers, Mothers, Marriage,” Liahona and Ensign, Aug. 2004, 3). By divine design, nurturing seems to be part of the spiritual heritage given to women. I’ve seen it in my daughters, and now I see it in my granddaughters—even before they could walk, they wanted to carry and care for their little baby dolls."

The church has a great summary of this conference entitled teachings for mothers. It is just short excerpts that really help strengthen those who are raising children. I cannot wait for General Conference this weekend and the opportunity that we have to hear from our living prophet and other general authorities. I hope that you can all enjoy it too on Saturday and Sunday by tuning into the live broadcasts on http://www.lds.org/.