Even more: Women, Wives, Mothers

Spencer W. Kimball
"Mothers Are Partners with God and with Husbands" ~
"Motherhood is a holy calling, a sacred dedication for carrying out the Lord's work, a consecration and devotion to the rearing and fostering, the nurturing of body, mind, and spirit of those who kept their first estate and who came to the earth for their second estate to learn and be tested and to work toward godhood.
"Mothers have a sacred role. They are partners with God, as well as with their own husbands, first in giving birth to the Lord's spirit children, and then in rearing those children so they will serve the Lord and keep his commandments. Could there be a more sacred trust than to be a trustee for honorable, well-born, well-developed children?"
("The Blessings and Responsibilities of Womanhood," Relief Society General Conference, Oct. 2, 1975; Ensign, March 1976 p. 70)

Righteous Women to Guard Homes ~
[On September 16, 1978, a "special women's fireside" was held in the Tabernacle, broadcast throughout the world. President Spencer W. Kimball provided the keynote address of that meeting, including this thought:]
"To be a righteous woman is a glorious thing in any age. To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling. The righteous woman's strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times. She has been placed here to help to enrich, to protect, and to guard the home -- which is society's basic and most noble institution. Other institutions in society may falter and even fail, but the righteous woman can help to save the home, which may be the last and only sanctuary some mortals know in the midst of storm and strife."
“We hope, as sons, husbands, fathers, and grandfathers, that you, as holders of the priesthood, will be considerate and thoughtful of your sisters, your mothers, your wives, your grandmothers. The priesthood presides in the home, but it must preside as Jesus Christ presides over his Church -- in love, in service, in tenderness, and in example.”
(Spencer W. Kimball,, GC, Apr.1976)

“I sincerely hope that our Latter-day Saint girls and women, and men and boys, will drink deeply of the water of life and conform their lives to the beautiful and comprehensive roles the Lord assigned to them. ..... What satisfying personal lives we can live! What beautiful families we can nurture and train! What a heavenly future is ours!”
(Spencer W. Kimball, “The Lord’s Plan for Men and Women,” Ensign, Oct. 1975, p. 5)

“Certainly, if fathers are to be respected, they must merit respect -- if they are to be loved, they must be consistent, lovable, understanding, and kind -- and they must honor their priesthood. They must see themselves as fortunate trustees of precious spirit children whom God has entrusted to their care.
“What a great incentive a mother has to honor and build up her worthy husband in the esteem of the offspring when she knows that this contributes to the well-adjusted lives of her children. And what a great incentive the father has for rising to his tallest spiritual stature to merit the love and respect of all members of the family.
“And so we plead with you fathers to return to your little kingdoms and, with kindness, justice, proper discipline, and love, to inspire your family.
(Spencer W. Kimball, Sao Paulo Area Conference Parents Meeting, 3/1/75; see TS W K, p. 338)

“Husbands and wives should love and cherish their spouses.”
(Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Nov. 1974, p. 8)

“No greater recognition can come to you in this world than to be known as a woman of God. No greater status can be conferred upon you than being a daughter of God who experiences true sisterhood, wifehood, and motherhood or other tasks that influence lives for good.”
(Spencer W. Kimball,, My Beloved Sisters, p. 38)

“Among the real heroines in the world who will come into the Church are women who are more concerned with being righteous than with being selfish. These real heroines have true humility, which places a higher value on integrity than on visibility. Remember, it is as wrong to do things just to be seen of women as it is to do tings to be seen of men. Great women and men are always more anxious to serve than to have dominion.”
(Spencer W. Kimball, “The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, Nov 1979, p. 104)

"No greater recognition can come to [women in the Church] in this world than to be known as [women] of God."
("The Role of Righteous Women," ENSIGN, Nov. 1979, 102)

“Finally, my dear sisters, may I suggest to you something that has not been said before or at least in quite this way. Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world (in whom there is often such an inner sense of spirituality) will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that they are seen as distinct and different-in happy ways-from the women of the world.
“Among the real heroines in the world who will come into the Church are women who are more concerned with being righteous than with being selfish. These real heroines have true humility, which places a higher value on integrity than on visibility. Remember, it is as wrong to do things just to be seen of women as it is to do things to be seen of men. Great women and men are always more anxious to serve than to have dominion.
“Thus it will be that the female exemplars of the Church will be a significant force in both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the Church in the last days.
“No wonder the adversary strives, even now, to prevent this from happening! Regardless of who is receiving the adversary's special attention at any given time, he seeks to make all people miserable like unto himself. (2 Nephi 2:27) Indeed, he seeks the misery of all mankind. (2 Nephi 2:18) He is undeviating in his purposes and clever and relentless in his pursuit of them.
“We love you, sisters. We have confidence in you. We rejoice in your devotion. May God bless you so that all the previous blessings promised to you will become a reality in this life and in the world to come.”
Spencer W. Kimball, My Beloved Sisters, (SLC: Deseret Book Company,1979)

“No matter what the differences of circumstances you observe in the lives of women about you, it is important for … Latter-day Saint women to understand that the Lord holds motherhood and mothers sacred and in the highest esteem. He has entrusted to his daughters the great responsibility of bearing and nurturing children.
“This is the great, irreplaceable work of women.”
(Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Nov. 1978, p. 105.)


William Law
“If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.”
William Law, an eighteenth-century clergyman


Harold B. Lee
"A Mother's Warning" ~
"I say to you mothers, if you ever have sons and daughters who amount to what they should in the world, it will be in no small degree due to the fact that your children have a mother who spends many nights on her knees in prayer, praying God that her son, her daughter, will not fail. I remember at the foolish years of my teenage life, my mother came to me with an intuitive impression and warning which I brushed off as a foolish teenagers do. 'Oh, Mother, that's silly,' I said, then within only a month, to stand face-to-face with the temptation about which Mother had warned. I never had the courage to go back and tell her how right she was, but I was on guard because someone warned my mother."
(Relief Society Conference, October 2, 1963; Relief Society Magazine Feb 1964, 51:84-89; see also Teachings of Harold B. Lee, p. 286)

“Woman, who has within her the power of creation ..., may have eternal increase in the worlds to come. Woman is the homemaker in her own home, and an exemplar to her posterity in the generations that succeed her. Woman is a helpmate to her husband and is to render him more perfect than he otherwise would be. Woman’s influence can bless a community or a nation .... If she does not forfeit her priceless heritage by her own willful negligence, she can be largely instrumental in safeguarding democracy and downing a would-be tyrant. Year in and year out, she may cast the aura of her calming and refining influence to make certain that her posterity will enjoy the opportunities to develop to their fullest potential their spiritual and physical natures.”
(Harold B. Lee, RS, Jan. 1967, p. 12-13)

“Someone asked a great opera singer who had a large family which of her children was her favorite. Her reply revealed the depth of her true motherhood: 'My favorite child is the one who is sick until he gets well or the one who is absent until he returns.’”
(Harold B. Lee, Church News, 6-13- 64, p. 14)

“You young wives must realize that as your companion comes home from his day’s labor, he comes sometimes with nerves that are taut with the tensions of that day’s efforts, hoping to find in you someone to give him the strength and the courage to go back inspired and better prepared to meet the problems of the next day. To nag and to scold and to fail to appreciate his problems is to fail in being the companion that he needs.”
(Harold B. Lee, Decisions for Successful Living, p. 178)

“Pure womanhood is to be honored. Pure womanhood plus priesthood means exaltation. But womanhood without priesthood, or priesthood without pure womanhood doesn't spell exaltation. That's our responsibility, to keep ourselves clean and honor our priesthood so that we can have exaltation.”
(Harold B. Lee, The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, p. 292)

"In answer to the teenage daughter who asked: 'Mother, how do you fall in love?' the wise mother had answered: 'My darling, you don't fall in love, you must keep working at it all the time.' Yes, love is like faith, it isn't something you can capture today and it will remain with you always. It must be nurtured day after day by a husband who continues to 'court' his wife after marriage by studiously trying to do the things that will make her happy. Someone has aptly said that 'a woman happy with her husband was better for her children than a hundred books on child welfare.'
"The flame of romantic desire in marriage is fanned each day by a wise companion who wins her man every day she lives with him. Marriages are not successful merely because these couples have fewer problems than others, but they are successful because, when problems come, as come they will, a husband and wife sit down together to solve their problems like grown-up, mature individuals, rather than with the immaturity of adolescence."
(Harold B. Lee, "Youth of the Noble Birthright" pp. 153-4; see Teachings of Harold B. Lee, p. 248)


David O. McKay
"Motherhood: Another Name for Sacrifice" ~
"Motherhood is just another name for sacrifice. From the moment the wee, helpless babe is laid on the pillow beside her, Mother daily, hourly, gives of her life to her loved one. It has been aptly said that babes draw strength at first from her bosom but always from her heart. All through the years of babyhood, childhood, and youth, aye, even after her girls themselves become mothers and her sons, fathers, she tenderly, lovingly sacrifices for them her time, her comfort, her pleasures, her needed rest and recreation, and, if necessary, health and life itself! No language can express the power and beauty and heroism of a mother's love....
"To each mother's son or daughter, we would say: you need no suggestions on how to make your mother happy on Mother's Day as on every day in the year. If you order a white carnation to be given her, she will be pleased; if you tell her in a letter of your appreciation and love, she will shed tears of happiness; but if you keep the spotless character and purity of soul she has given you, she will rejoice as the most blessed of mothers."
(David O. McKay, Gospel Ideals, pp. 45-67)

Motherhood: Raising and Loving Children ~
"Motherhood consists of three principal attributes or qualities: namely, (1) the power to bear, (2) the ability to rear, (3) the gift to love.
"Some women there are who possess only the first, and who, therefore, are unworthy the name of mother. Selfishly, passionately, they have expressed themselves, as others of their kind, on the low plane of physical life, scorning the responsibility to sacrifice for and to rear their offspring choking the fountain of love by selfish and wilful neglect of their children.
"In contrast, there are other women, who, denied the power to bear children, adopt some as their own, rear them with an ability characteristic of and inherent in true womanhood, and fill the lives of their darlings with a love that only the yearning soul of such a mother can know. Such are true mothers, indeed, though part of the experience of motherhood be denied them!
"This ability and willingness properly to rear children, the gift to love, and eagerness, yes, longing to express it in soul development, make motherhood the noblest office or calling in the world. She who can paint a masterpiece or write a book that will influence millions deserves the admiration and the plaudits of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters, whose influence will be felt through generations to come, whose immortal souls will exert an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have decayed or shall have been destroyed, deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God. In her high duty and service to humanity, endowing with immortality eternal spirits, she is co-partner with the Creator himself."
(David O. McKay, 1936, 39:269; see also Gospel Ideals, pp. 453-454)

“Throughout Christendom there is no married woman who may not be entitled to this tribute to motherhood. It is true that some wives have never been privileged to bear children, but it does not follow that they are not entitled to every honor due to the best of mothers.”
(David O. McKay, CR, Apr. 1952, pp. 86-87)

“Motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by [a woman].”
(David O. McKay, Conference Report, Oct. 1942, pp. 12-13)

“Let us instruct young people who come to us, first, to young men through the Church, to know that a woman should be queen of her own body. The marriage covenant does not give the man the right to enslave her or to abuse her or to use her merely for the gratification of his passion. Your marriage ceremony does not give you that right.
“Second, let them remember that gentleness and consideration after the ceremony [are] just as appropriate and necessary and beautiful as gentleness and consideration before the wedding.
“Third, let us realize that manhood is not undermined by the practicing of continence, not withstanding what some psychiatrists claim. Chastity is the crown of beautiful womanhood, and self-control is the source of true manhood, if you will know it, not indulgence....
“Let us teach our young men to enter into matrimony with the idea that each will be just as courteous and considerate of a wife after the ceremony as during courtship”
(David O. McKay, Gospel Ideals, p.455)

“Motherhood is the one thing in all the world which most truly exemplifies the God-given virtues of creating and sacrificing. Though it carries the woman close to the brink of death, motherhood also leads her into the very realm of the fountains of life and makes her co-partner with the Creator in bestowing upon eternal spirits mortal life....

Home is the Center from which Women Rule the World ~
"It is the mother who inculcates in the lives of children a nobility of soul that leads them instinctively to love the beautiful, the genuine, the virtuous, and, as instinctively, to turn from the ugly, the spurious, and the vile. Home is the center from which woman rules the world. It is there she teaches her child self-restraint, develops in him the confidence and strength that spring from self-control. It is there the child learns respect for the rights of others. It is in a well-directed home that men and women first develop a consciousness that true happiness lies in conforming one's life to the laws of nature and to the rules of social conduct....
"Yes, the woman wields a mighty influence! Let that influence be felt even more potently throughout the Church and our communities in the protection of our homes from the impurities that are now sweeping the nation. The Lord bless every mother, every woman, that she may be wise and strong in teaching our boys and girls in maintaining ethical standards and in being exemplary examples to young people in all the world!"
(David O. McKay, Instructor May 1966, pp. 162-63)

“A beautiful, modest, gracious woman is creation’s masterpiece. When to these virtues a woman possesses as guiding stars in her life righteousness and godliness and an irresistible impulse and desire to make others happy, no one will question if she be classed among those who are truly great.”
(Gospel Ideals, SLC: The Improvement Era, 1953, p. 449)


Neal A. Maxwell
Women of the Gospel ~
“The daughters of the world may grown more shrill, more hard, more selfish, and less motherly – but the faithful daughters of Zion will be ladies of light; they will be elect because they have elected to follow in the footsteps of the faithful women of God who have existed in all dispensations of time.”
(Neal A. Maxwell)

“I, along with my brethren of the priesthood, express undying gratitude to our eternal partners. We know that we can go no place that matters without you, nor would we have it otherwise. When we kneel to pray, we kneel together. When we kneel at the altar of the holy temple, we kneel together. When we approach the final gate where Jesus Himself is the gatekeeper, we will, if faithful, pass through that gate together.
“The prophet who sits with us today could tell us of such togetherness, when at the time of his overwhelming apostolic calling he was consoled by his Camilla, who met his anguished, sobbing sense of inadequacy and, running her fingers through his hair, said, ‘You can do it, you can do it.’ He surely has done it, but with her at his side.
“Notice, brethren, how all the prophets treat their wives and honor women, and let us do likewise!” Neal A. Maxwell, “The Women of God,” Ensign, May 1978, 10


Thomas S. Monson
Core Values Learned from Our Mothers ~
"Being a mother has never been an easy role. Some of the oldest writings in the world admonish us not to forsake the law of our mother, instruct us that a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother, and warn us not to ignore our mother when she is old (Proverbs 1:8; 10:1;23:22).
"The scriptures also remind us that what we learn from our mothers comprises our very core values."
("If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear," Ensign, November 2004, 116)