Motherhood is Where I'm Supposed to Be!



Oh. My. Goodness.  Time flies.  I just am not writing as much as I'd like to be.  Family life has been keeping me quite busy.  After a rough first week of the New Year (post-holiday blues, I guess) I sunk my feet in and began loving (again!) my role as a mother.  I do what mothers do best - - keep the family running.  ;-)  I still have some projects in my back pocket, but they are not at the forefront of my mind.

It's funny (embarrassing, really!) how I have to keep revisiting this principle:  Motherhood is where I'm supposed to be!  And it's even funnier how once I remember this one truth in my life, I'm a MUCH happier person (and mother!).  Sure, my house isn't perfectly clean, my desk is piled with papers, there are still dreams waiting to be fulfilled, and my to-do list is left without check marks...but these last couple of weeks I have felt a sense of fulfillment at the end of the day as I have focused on my family.

The Project
One thing that has really kept me from writing recently is a big project I'm working on for my daughter, Addie.  She has really struggled with reading the scriptures.  If she doesn't understand something right away, she will get overwhelmed and frustrated, losing any desire whatsoever to keep going.  Several months ago I asked her what I could do to help her.  She explained:

"I like it when there's, like, a few verses to read and then I have to answer a question based on those verses."

So, I went online to find a scripture journal for her.  There are some good options out there (the Red Headed Hostess study guide being the most awesome), but none of them seemed to be the right fit for her.  Either the journals didn't go chronologically or they were too busy/complicated for her needs.  She just wanted a simple:  Read this....Answer this...kind of format.

Well, for the last few months I've been thinking I should just make one for her.  When the New Year began, I thought, "You know what?  I haven't read the Book of Mormon all the way through in a little while, maybe it's time to do that again for one of my 2016 goals."  And thus began my journal-making process.

It is so fun and so addicting!  I finished 1 Nephi and had Addie try it out.  She LOVED it!  Her one complaint: "There's not enough writing room."  :-)  I'm hoping to start sharing it here on the blog for any other kiddos (or adults) out there how want a simple, focused study.  Of course, as I write the questions, I've got Addie on my mind.  What does she need to think about and learn?  AND, of course, I think about my own needs and insights when asking the questions.  However, I'm still hoping it will be universal enough to share and I have all sorts of other ideas flowing through my brain right now!  But these are all dream-stage thoughts.  I just wanted to share what I'm doing instead of blogging right now!  ;-)

Back to Motherhood
Anyway...going back to my first thought in this post... I'm realizing how this focus on a project for my daughter at the same time as working on my own spiritual growth is so awesome!  This project has completely allowed me to see (again!) what motherhood really means to me.  I think I've allowed myself to get wrapped up in the thought that I need to have MY time away from MOM time....but it is so much simpler (and more fulfilling) if we can just merge the two together. I love reading the scriptures and I love being a mom.  With this project I'm doing both!

Motherhood is a place where we have the opportunity to explore what gifts we've been given and then using those gifts to bless the lives of our children.

Motherhood is definitely a "lose yourself" kind of a work, but it doesn't have to be a place where we lose sense of who we are meant to be and what we are meant to do.

Motherhood is about living close to the Spirit and choosing what is most important each and every day...for you and your children.

I'm sure I'll be writing another post just like this one in a few years (or months!) as I am reminded once again which role is truly most important in my life.  Oh, that I might more fully treasure this gift of being a mother more consistently!

 - - - - - 

A woman who treasures motherhood on earth will treasure motherhood in the world to come, and “where [her] treasure is, there will [her] heart be also” (Matt. 6:21). By developing a mother heart, each girl and woman prepares for her divine, eternal mission of motherhood.  
- - Sister Julie B. Beck, April 2004 - - 

Comments

  1. That's such a great idea! Can you imagine what you'd learn if you read the scriptures and did that for each individual child (and obviously it would pass right along to their learning and growth and feeling of love knowing you did that just for them!) I'd totally buy one from you, even the generic version. =)

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  2. You're so great! Thank you. Miss you, too!

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