Parenthood

I love and value being a mother, but sometimes I need to be reminded of the importance of my work when all I notice around me are the spaghettio streaks on the wall or the yogurt-encrusted hair of my rambunctious kids. This week, that reminder of the beauty and sacredness of being a parent came from one of my new neighbors. A sweet woman that I had only briefly met before came up to me at our neighborhood playground with a beautiful baby boy in her arms. With pure joy written on her features, she explained to me that this was her new baby! She and her husband had just been able to adopt him after months of waiting and he had finally arrived. Throughout the day I witnessed both parents playing with him in the beautiful weather along with grandparents that had travelled from a foreign country to be with their new grandson. Later that day, I saw this new mother quietly rocked her son to sleep for the first time under the shade of a tree. I know that she will soon have her days of messes on the kitchen wall, but I'm also certain that she will find much joy along the way.

President Hinckley wrote that we should, "celebrate and treat children as our most priceless treasures ... If our children are really our greatest treasures, it stands to reason that they deserve our greatest attention (Standing for Something, 152)." I know that I often fall short of this ideal, but I truly hope that at the end of my lifetime I will be able to look back and see that I dedicated myself as much as I could to what matters the most.