Passages for the Modern Accomplished Lady

Nurture: the act or process of promoting the development of a child.

Have you ever heard that a mother’s role is to nurture her children?  I will admit that I have heard that several times, and have always thought, “I don’t even really know what that means.”  The definition above states that nurturing is the act or process of promoting the development of a child.  The question is, “how do you promote development?”  That is a tough question to answer, but here is another definition I saw under nurture.

Nurture: to nourish; feed

This definition struck me.  MY JOB, AS A MOTHER, IS TO FEED MY CHILDREN PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, AND SPIRITUALLY.  Some of you may be thinking, “Well, DUH!!!”  BUT, I heard a wonderful quote by CS Lewis that said, “Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”  I believe you can never look at something from too many angles. 

Feeding Physically

This is pretty self-explanatory.  We must give our children food.  However, a good thing to think about is what relationship with food we are teaching our children.  Are we teaching them to eat everything in sight?  Or, are we teaching them to be afraid of food because it leads us to gain weight?  Perhaps we don’t talk about it, but what are we telling them by our eating habits and, or, body language?

I heard a shocking statistic the other day that this generation of children is the first generation that is expected not to live a life as long as their parents due to eating and exercise habits.  We need to teach them how to develop good habits.  We must not only feed them, but also teach them how to feed themselves so they can carry on good choices independently. 

Feeding Emotionally

What kinds of things are we telling our children daily?  Do we demonstrate encouragement, love, and praise, or criticism, anger, and pain?  Please understand that not all behavior should be encouraged-children learn right from wrong because we help them to see the difference, but do we tell them enough when they are doing well?  When you have a baby you tell them “good job” for everything: finishing their dinner plate, putting a toy away, trying to play the piano, learning to climb a stair. Then, as they get older, we tend to limit the amount of times we tell them they do well.  It is true that to grow we need the dirt sometimes, but if all a flower had was soil and no water or sunshine, the flower would eventually die.  Though our children may not die, are we giving enough sunshine?

Feeding Spiritually

The Savior of the World commanded His apostles to feed His sheep.  I find it interesting that we have that same call.  Feeding spiritually is active; it takes action.  I also have to come to the conclusion that if it is our job to feed our children spiritually, then the Lord will give us the power to do it.  Please understand that it is not a power in the priesthood sense, but it is a power that comes from our faith in the Savior.  Our faith gives us the ability to lean on the Lord and get the guidance needed to feed His sheep.  Here is a hard question: do our children need physical food more than they need spiritual food?  The Savior went 40 days without food when He fasted.  We would never let our children go a day without physically eating, but do we let them go a day without spiritual nutrition?  Thought provoking isn’t it? 

I have to admit that this got me excited.  It gave me a stronger sense of purpose knowing that I had these responsibilities.  AND, even though there are women all over the world who have the same responsibilities, I am the only one that has them for MY children, and they are the only ones that have them for theirs, and that makes our mission unique. 

Ladies, let us nurture our children in EVERY sense of the word.  Let us look for ways we can build them up, and teach them about the Lord so that they can grow into the human beings they are meant to be.  Let us make our contributions one nurturing way at a time.

Yours truly,

5 tips on Nuturing:

1.    Sit your children down and talk to them about food.  Teach them about the food pyramid and why it is important monitor what goes into our bodies.

2.    Look for more times to tell your child they are doing well throughout the day. Encourage them when you can, and see what it does to their countenance.

3.    Make a check-list for things to do during the day, and add “spiritually feed children” to the list.  Look for a small way to teach them something about Christ.

4.    Get out and exercise as a family.  Talk with children about the importance of exercise.

5.    Look for ways that faith in the Savior brings power into your day as a mother.  Write down those inspirations.