I gave a lesson to the laurels on 'How can I prepare not to become a righteous wife and mother' and had the thought that I should invite Sister Barbara Workman, from our ward, to come in as a guest speaker. I have had the privilege this past year of visiting teaching with Barbara. She has raised 9 children and is, I believe, an amazing example of a righteous wife and mother. Full of love and service...she is what she teaches. The Laurels loved her (as I new they would!) and were taking notes furiously. Here is her message given on August 23rd, 2015.
Looking at you, and knowing something about you, I am confident you want to be righteous wives and mothers. And you are old enough and mature enough to begin to make firm decisions that will bring you that supreme destiny. I want to entitle these remarks: Decide to Decide:
Someone said: “The entire life of a human being depends upon “yes” and “no” uttered two or three times between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five.” These are a few “yes” and “no” answers you can decide on now.
1. Decide that “yes” this is what you do want. Pray for this blessing. Tell your Heavenly Father you desire to be a righteous wife and mother, and plead for his help. Ask each morning that he will send the Holy Ghost be with you each day, to help you prepare.
2. Decide now that you will have a temple marriage, to a young man who loves the Lord mnmnbnm,enough to serve a mission. His love of the Lord will help him know how to love you, and how to be a priesthood leader in your home. We served a mission in Europe just four years after the Berlin Wall came down, and the Iron Curtain was destroyed.. We met the father of a girl who had decided she could never marry. The Iron Curtain had been in place 40 years and she was behind it. She knew she would not be allowed to leave to go to a temple. She had made the commitment not to marry outside the temple, so she was resigned to the fact that she would not marry. A fine young Communist wanted to date her, but she said no. that was her vital “no” answer that determined her eternal destiny. She then explained her religious faith to him. He said, “But, can’t I learn more about your faith?” They were the first couple sealed in the Freiberg Temple, built behind the Iron Curtain, an almost impossible miracle. Her father believed, and I agree, that her faith helped bring a beautiful LDS temple in a Communist controlled area that forbid religious practice.
3. Decide you want to be a mother. Begin now to pray for this blessing The Lord loves mothers. It may not be a popular idea when you are ready for marriage. Children are hard work and sometimes heartaches, but you can’t measure the joy they will bring you. The commandment the Lord gave Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth is still in force, and it is so because the Lord wants to bless us. We moved here to be near children and grandchildren. It is joy. You will live longer than we will, and family rewards multiply. . Decide to make your adult years family-centered years. You will have sorrows, but your joys will far outweigh your sorrows.
4.. Decide to look for someone and be someone with the kind of attitude Abraham had. (Read Abraham 1:2) He wanted to learn more so he could be better, he wanted to hold and honor the priesthood, he wanted to be a father. He was trying to be obedient, but he wanted to be even more righteous. He wanted to be taught, he wanted to keep the commandments. Having this attitude, and choosing a young man with this attitude will give your children the blessing of being born into a sealed, eternal family with a righteous priesthood leader father and a valiant mother. It is the perfect plan. You will be primarily responsible for .the physical birth of your children. Your husband is primarily responsible for their spiritual re-birth. He will bless them and baptize them and teach them in Family Home Evening, give them blessings, and set a righteous example for them and love them. There is no way to overstate the importance of his role to you and your children.
We have been married almost 62 years. Just a few days before we were married,, my husband- to-be said, “I may not always know what is right but I promise you if I do know, I will do it.” This he has always done. He was tall, dark and handsome, smart, athletic, funny, but it was his righteousness that cemented our marriage, and has done the most to make me happy. There are wonderful young men out there with that attitude. Decide your “yes” answer will be to that kind of a person.
5. Decide you will have a temple recommend for the rest of your life. Now it is to do baptisms. Soon it will be to receive the full endowment, which will give you the covenants and ordinances that will qualify you to stand side by side with a perfected, majestic husband, as a king and queen in the Celestial Kingdom. And that kind of a husband will also be a powerful priesthood leader in your home while you are in mortality. And that will matter more and more as the second coming draws nearer. If you are at home in the temple you will bring the spirit of the temple into your home. It will bless every person there.
5. Elder Ballard recently gave a talk about staying in the boat and holding on with both hands. Decide, “No, you will never get out of the boat.” You will trust the prophets and apostles and stay firm and active in the church. You will stay on the path. My husband was part of a squadron of pilots that had been judged the best air defense squadron of fighter pilots in the United States,. The next year, after they had been evaluated again by a group of generals, they wanted to make sure they would keep that ranking. There were 28 pilots and 28 jet fighters. They took every plane, in tight formation, and flew over the base where the generals had gone to evaluate another squadron. Then they flew back to home base in Merced, California. Dan wanted to just get a quick glimpse of the sight, so he pulled just a little bit up and out of formation to look. Just at that moment a photographer on the ground took a picture for the newspaper. We have the picture. He was heartsick. Stay in formation girls. This is the Lord’s church, it will take you where you want to go. If you get out of formation someone will take that picture. It may be the boy who would have been your ideal husband, it may be your child who needs your good example. Stay strong in the church, stay in formation, stay in the boat and hold on with both hands.
6.. Finally, but so important, to help all of these things happen, decide, “yes” I will read at least five verses of scripture out of the Book of Mormon every single day. The whole message of the Book of Mormon is “Come unto Christ.” If you diligently read something every day in the Book of Mormon will bring you to Christ and Christ. It will help you be the righteous, virtuous woman you want to be. Peter saw Christ walking on the water and wanted to come to him. He was able to walk on the water until the boisterous winds and waves made him lose faith and he started to sink. The Savior reached out his hand and said, “Come” That is his message to you, you are in a world of turbulence and false messages and people who would turn you away from Christ. Remember his hand is always out to you. Come to him. If you will read every day you will know he knows you, wants you, loves you, and that his way is best, and you will gain strength to follow him. Phillippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ, which stengtheneth me.” There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path.”
Remember:
1. Decide you want to be a righteous wife and mother. Tell the Lord that is what you want.
2.. .Decide you will have a temple mariage to a young man who sincerely loves the Lord.
3. Decide your want to have children..
4. Choose and be someone with the Abrahamic attitude.
5. Decide you will stay strong and active in the church. You will trust the prophets and apostles
6. Decide you will read at least 5 verses of the Book of Mormon every day. That would take you less than a minute. More is encouraged. It will bring you to Christ and Christ will help you be a righteous wife and mother.
Looking at you, and knowing something about you, I am confident you want to be righteous wives and mothers. And you are old enough and mature enough to begin to make firm decisions that will bring you that supreme destiny. I want to entitle these remarks: Decide to Decide:
Someone said: “The entire life of a human being depends upon “yes” and “no” uttered two or three times between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five.” These are a few “yes” and “no” answers you can decide on now.
1. Decide that “yes” this is what you do want. Pray for this blessing. Tell your Heavenly Father you desire to be a righteous wife and mother, and plead for his help. Ask each morning that he will send the Holy Ghost be with you each day, to help you prepare.
2. Decide now that you will have a temple marriage, to a young man who loves the Lord mnmnbnm,enough to serve a mission. His love of the Lord will help him know how to love you, and how to be a priesthood leader in your home. We served a mission in Europe just four years after the Berlin Wall came down, and the Iron Curtain was destroyed.. We met the father of a girl who had decided she could never marry. The Iron Curtain had been in place 40 years and she was behind it. She knew she would not be allowed to leave to go to a temple. She had made the commitment not to marry outside the temple, so she was resigned to the fact that she would not marry. A fine young Communist wanted to date her, but she said no. that was her vital “no” answer that determined her eternal destiny. She then explained her religious faith to him. He said, “But, can’t I learn more about your faith?” They were the first couple sealed in the Freiberg Temple, built behind the Iron Curtain, an almost impossible miracle. Her father believed, and I agree, that her faith helped bring a beautiful LDS temple in a Communist controlled area that forbid religious practice.
3. Decide you want to be a mother. Begin now to pray for this blessing The Lord loves mothers. It may not be a popular idea when you are ready for marriage. Children are hard work and sometimes heartaches, but you can’t measure the joy they will bring you. The commandment the Lord gave Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth is still in force, and it is so because the Lord wants to bless us. We moved here to be near children and grandchildren. It is joy. You will live longer than we will, and family rewards multiply. . Decide to make your adult years family-centered years. You will have sorrows, but your joys will far outweigh your sorrows.4.. Decide to look for someone and be someone with the kind of attitude Abraham had. (Read Abraham 1:2) He wanted to learn more so he could be better, he wanted to hold and honor the priesthood, he wanted to be a father. He was trying to be obedient, but he wanted to be even more righteous. He wanted to be taught, he wanted to keep the commandments. Having this attitude, and choosing a young man with this attitude will give your children the blessing of being born into a sealed, eternal family with a righteous priesthood leader father and a valiant mother. It is the perfect plan. You will be primarily responsible for .the physical birth of your children. Your husband is primarily responsible for their spiritual re-birth. He will bless them and baptize them and teach them in Family Home Evening, give them blessings, and set a righteous example for them and love them. There is no way to overstate the importance of his role to you and your children.
We have been married almost 62 years. Just a few days before we were married,, my husband- to-be said, “I may not always know what is right but I promise you if I do know, I will do it.” This he has always done. He was tall, dark and handsome, smart, athletic, funny, but it was his righteousness that cemented our marriage, and has done the most to make me happy. There are wonderful young men out there with that attitude. Decide your “yes” answer will be to that kind of a person.
5. Decide you will have a temple recommend for the rest of your life. Now it is to do baptisms. Soon it will be to receive the full endowment, which will give you the covenants and ordinances that will qualify you to stand side by side with a perfected, majestic husband, as a king and queen in the Celestial Kingdom. And that kind of a husband will also be a powerful priesthood leader in your home while you are in mortality. And that will matter more and more as the second coming draws nearer. If you are at home in the temple you will bring the spirit of the temple into your home. It will bless every person there.
5. Elder Ballard recently gave a talk about staying in the boat and holding on with both hands. Decide, “No, you will never get out of the boat.” You will trust the prophets and apostles and stay firm and active in the church. You will stay on the path. My husband was part of a squadron of pilots that had been judged the best air defense squadron of fighter pilots in the United States,. The next year, after they had been evaluated again by a group of generals, they wanted to make sure they would keep that ranking. There were 28 pilots and 28 jet fighters. They took every plane, in tight formation, and flew over the base where the generals had gone to evaluate another squadron. Then they flew back to home base in Merced, California. Dan wanted to just get a quick glimpse of the sight, so he pulled just a little bit up and out of formation to look. Just at that moment a photographer on the ground took a picture for the newspaper. We have the picture. He was heartsick. Stay in formation girls. This is the Lord’s church, it will take you where you want to go. If you get out of formation someone will take that picture. It may be the boy who would have been your ideal husband, it may be your child who needs your good example. Stay strong in the church, stay in formation, stay in the boat and hold on with both hands.
6.. Finally, but so important, to help all of these things happen, decide, “yes” I will read at least five verses of scripture out of the Book of Mormon every single day. The whole message of the Book of Mormon is “Come unto Christ.” If you diligently read something every day in the Book of Mormon will bring you to Christ and Christ. It will help you be the righteous, virtuous woman you want to be. Peter saw Christ walking on the water and wanted to come to him. He was able to walk on the water until the boisterous winds and waves made him lose faith and he started to sink. The Savior reached out his hand and said, “Come” That is his message to you, you are in a world of turbulence and false messages and people who would turn you away from Christ. Remember his hand is always out to you. Come to him. If you will read every day you will know he knows you, wants you, loves you, and that his way is best, and you will gain strength to follow him. Phillippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ, which stengtheneth me.” There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path.”
Remember:
1. Decide you want to be a righteous wife and mother. Tell the Lord that is what you want.
2.. .Decide you will have a temple mariage to a young man who sincerely loves the Lord.
3. Decide your want to have children..
4. Choose and be someone with the Abrahamic attitude.
5. Decide you will stay strong and active in the church. You will trust the prophets and apostles
6. Decide you will read at least 5 verses of the Book of Mormon every day. That would take you less than a minute. More is encouraged. It will bring you to Christ and Christ will help you be a righteous wife and mother.
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