Your life is your own, to develop or to destroy. You can blame others little and yourself almost totally if that life is not a productive, worthy, full, and abundant one.
Spencer W. KimballRead
To be a mother is a woman's greatest vocation in life. She is a partner with God. No being has a position of such power and influence. She holds in her hands the destiny of nations, for to her comes the responsibility and opportunity of molding the nation's citizens.
Interpretation
Motherhood is the highest calling a woman can have, as it shapes future generations.
In this quote, Spencer W. Kimball emphasizes the profound and sacred role of motherhood in society. He suggests that a mother not only nurtures her children but also plays a crucial role in shaping the future of nations, highlighting the immense responsibility and influence that comes with being a mother. This perspective elevates the role of women to one of divine partnership with God in the creation and guidance of future generations.
In practice
In a speech at a parenting conference, you can quote this to highlight the importance of nurturing children.
Your life is your own, to develop or to destroy. You can blame others little and yourself almost totally if that life is not a productive, worthy, full, and abundant one.
Do not make small goals because they do not have the magic to stir men's souls.
What could you do better for your children and your children's children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved? Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.
Failure to plan brings barrenness and sterility. Fate brushes man with its wings, but we make our own fate largely.
A dozen times a day we come to a fork in the road and must decide which way we will go. It is important to get our ultimate objectives clearly in mind so that we do not become distracted at each fork in the road by the irrelevant questions: Which is the easier or more pleasant way? Or, Which way are others going?
The day obedience becomes a quest and not an irritation is the day you gain power.
I lost my daughter at 21. I had to give her up because I was broke, no place to take her, no money to take her. That was very traumatic.
Even though my mom was talented and had a college degree, she lived in the era when the conventional wisdom in Dallas was that my dad worked, she was supposed to stay home and take care of the kids, and that was that. There really weren't other opportunities for her, and most of them were volunteer opportunities.
And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.
Who of us is mature enough for offspring before the offspring themselves arrive? The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.
What is a family, after all, except memories? Haphazard and precious as the contents of a catch-all drawer in the kitchen.
No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?
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