Honoring and Defending Motherhood

A discussion about motherhood – could be used in personal study or as a family home evening or class lesson for kids that are old enough to have a discussion.

As ones who have access to the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ we should have different perspective on parenting than much of the rest of the world. We can understand the role a mother and father play in God’s great plan! For now let’s discuss motherhood.

Questions to Consider:

• Why are mothers important? (Consider how motherhood fits into God’s plan.)
• How can kids, men, and women honor and protect motherhood?

Ideas for Leading this Discussion:

• Read through the resources listed (or others you know about or are inspired to read). Pick out a few paragraphs that fit points you feel are important for your family or class.
  • For a small group: Ask the group to think of answers to the two questions. Have each person read their paragraph to themselves and think about how it answers those questions. Then have everyone read their quote and share their thoughts with the group.
  • For larger groups: Split into smaller groups. Give each group one of the quotes to read together and discuss how it answers the two questions. Then have the groups share what they have discussed.
• Use three pieces of paper and label each with kids, men, and women. Ask your family or group how kids, men and women defend motherhood. Split large groups into smaller groups and give the small group one of the papers. Have them write ideas on the paper so they can share them with the rest of the group. In a family, give out the papers and have everyone think of ideas. But try giving the kid paper to dad and the mom paper to a daughter etc. It will probably be easier for someone to come up with ideas for someone else than for themselves.
• Use a children’s story book about mothers or examples of animal mothers leading babies as examples for what mothers do and why they are important.
• Ask people to share, and share your own feelings, about why motherhood is important.

Resources:

• Family Proclamation

• Defenders of the Family Proclamation by Bonnie L. Oscarson (4/2015) – this talk includes a great story about a mom who chose to talk about the skills it takes to be a mom at a career day presentation.

“Everyone, no matter what their marital circumstance or number of children, can be defenders of the Lord’s plan described in the family proclamation. If it is the Lord’s plan, it should also be our plan!” -Bonnie L. Oscarson

• Christine C. Gilbert’s Address at BYU-I

“Sisters, when you know why the Lord wants you to be a mother, you will have more courage to stand up against a society that would belittle that choice. You will also have the depth of character to develop the talents and skills needed to be an effective mother.

“To the brethren, you can learn now to support, defend, and encourage the women in your lives. Start with your own mothers and sisters by respecting and showing gratitude to them for all they do. Secondly, be considerate to the women you come in contact with each day…

“For all of us, if we don’t hold up the role of motherhood, others in the world will tear it down!” -Christine C. Gilbert (from a devotional at BYU-I)

• Ways that Kids, Men, & Women can honor and protect motherhood. (Note, this isn’t only about honoring your own mother. It’s about defending the idea of and importance of mothers. And everyone has the responsibility to do that!) There are many more ideas that could be added to this list.

• Kids – obeying, not speaking bad about mom, encouraging friends to obey and respect their moms, helping at home, giving mom hugs, doing nice things for mom, spending time with & helping grandmas.
• Men – respect women in words & actions, help kids respect women, fathers show kids he loves & respects their mother, devote time & effort & thought to own mother as well as wife, work together with wife to care for home & family, help teach own kids & others about kindness & respect & service, pray for wife & mother & daughters, express gratitude for & to women, help kids find ways to help & celebrate mom.
• Women – be kind to self & other women, do your best & be ok with that, express gratitude to other women, don’t compare, pray for guidance, develop & boldly use unique gifts you’ve been given, know why women and mothers are important to God, privately & publicly claim your role as a mother, talk to children about why mothers/being a mother is important to you.