Wildness and a Mother’s Historic Hold Upon Our Hearts

When I first started doing policy work for the WOW organization I was shocked to see radical feminist NGO groups having open hostility and disdain for motherhood, yet also declaring they were activists for creating strong women. How is a woman strong at all when she tears down other women? It’s weak, manipulative, immature social behavior to try to make yourself look important by tearing other people down or ripping people apart.

Yesterday, May 9, 2020, emotions about motherhood came to the forefront as a young Australian child was ripped from his mother’s arms kicking and screaming while his mother was getting detained. The footage of the treatment of this child and mother is heart-wrenching to watch because we all know a child needs their mother for security and mental well-being. I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone was factoring in the trauma the child was facing and what the outcomes of that trauma might be fore that child. No one can replace a child’s mother. And, because of this fact, that we all personally know, we set aside a day each year to honor our mothers.

Since ancient times the importance of motherhood has been honored. Celebrations and festivals to honor Greek and Roman mother goddesses and the Christian celebration of “Mothering Sunday” during lent all happened long before the modern Mother’s Day we know today. So, how did Mother’s Day come about?

Ann Reeves Jarvis, from the US state of Virginia, started “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” prior to the Civil War to teach women how to better care for their children. After the Civil War, Jarvis and her “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” played an important role in unifying the most socially and politically divided state in the nation where she lived by hosting “Mother’s Friendship Day”. On these occasions the clubs would invite Union and Confederate soldiers to talk openly in order to promote reconciliation. It was this action by Jarvis that led the nation to make the second Sunday in May a national holiday dedicated to honoring the power and influence of Mothers in all of our lives.

Mothers, like Jarvis, have a history of not only mothering their children, but mothering communities and nations too. Even women who aren’t mothers yet, can be motherly influences upon the world when they promote high morals, values, and love of mankind. Jarvis’s groups helped bring a war-torn nation together by reaching out with love and creating a safe place for open communication to happen. That’s what mothers do. Jarvis’s clubs also taught mothers how to better care for their children. That’s what mothers do. They teach and lead, and even mother other mothers. The mothering I’ve received by other mothers has been a constant blessing in my life. Every time a mother or loving woman hugs me I think of the love and hugs from my mother.

My mother gives hugs and snuggles. She always has. I still remember crawling into bed with my mom as a child, and her wrapping her arms around me. I remember hugs while canning and cleaning together in the kitchen, and side-hugs while shopping with her. I can still feel those hugs after all these years. They are stamped in my body memory. Because of those memorable, loving embraces, I’ve always hugged and snuggled my children too. And now I have even more memories of truly loving embraces.

Thank you Mom, for showing me what love is, what it looks like, what it feels like, how it serves unselfishly, how it heals all the pains of life, and how it is blind to our imperfections. The example of your love for me helps me recognize God’s love for me. I can better understand how He cares because of how you care. ❤️ You are the heart and hearthstone of the our family. I owe my identity of my your deep and abiding love.

Happy Mother’s Day 2020!

The Power of Women! International Women’s Day 2020

March 8th is International Women’s Day. This is a day when we focus on what it really means to be a woman, and what sets women apart in this world of busy humans running through a rat-race of endless appointments and jobs that need to be done. To determine the true value of women, it’s worth putting the value of a woman in perspective. 

Disturbing Testimony!

This really happened. While sitting in a legislative committee meeting a few weeks ago, a woman commenting during the public comment section of an abortion bill presentation actually, in all seriousness said, “I wish my mother would have aborted me.” 

Never in all my years of working with women have I heard a woman disregard her own life in this way. I don’t know the mental condition or much of the life history of this woman, but I know that this type of sentiment is so rare, that the room was instantly shocked that a person could even suggest such a thing. 

No matter how hard or bad a life is, WOW believes that all life has value. Sure, some people who have been abused or mistreated may question the value of their life experiences. But, we know that survivors end up making strong contributions to society, and that sadness or sorrow leads to learning in its own way. Life isn’t perfect. But, that is actually the point. Despite the imperfectness of the life experiences, we still learn and live and grow and love and succeed in unique ways. 

Power of Women

Mothers start this journey for all of us. The birth process and life afterward won’t be easy for them or us, but they know there’s value in it anyway. They won’t be perfect. We won’t be perfect. But, they exercise their power to choose to bring us here regardless. 

The greatest power that women have is the power to choose to have children. There is no greater human power than the power to create another human being. No other talent, project, job, or activity a woman does can be compared to the ability women have to populate the world. 

When pro-choice advocates scream for more choice for women, WOW knows every woman does have a choice to engage her reproductive powers or not. She has the power to create children and the power to choose to engage in the beginning of the reproductive process (sexual intimacy) or not as well. (Except in cases of rape of course.) 

Women of Influence 

Not only do women have the power to get the people here, but they are the power that sculpts the ideas of the next generation too. While, TV, education, and media outlets have done a lot to capture the attention of the youngsters and have diligently tried to teach them what to think, some how mothers seem to still have more influence on the life of the child if she chooses to actively take the opportunity to use it. 

This power of influence is a power that literally transforms the world. I’m sure some power hungry companies and government officials have wondered how to get as much power as a woman has over her child. They have tried to simulate that power. But nothing really measures up. Wrapped in the arms and love of a mother who brought her child into the world resides the power to stop conflicts, defend truths, and teach nations. 

Unfortunately, the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this article wasn’t taught about her glory and power as a woman. I never thought I’d see the day when a woman would say she disregarded her own life. I know severe amounts of abuse can cause a person to become detached from basic realities. My woman heart reaches out to this woman. Please know that your pain has been felt, your story taught me a lesson. Even though you think your life is pointless, it still influences people. 

All women, whether they are mothers or not, have a motherly influence on the world. Plan today how you will influence the world for good. This is your international day to be grateful you are alive and that you are a woman! 

Happy International Women’s Day! 

Donate to WOW! Help us help more women and families around the world! 

Voiceless: The Silencing of European Women

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It’s ironic that in a time of woman power, that women in Europe are being persecuted for doing what women have always done, protect children. What does a woman do when she knows she needs to stand up for the right but she literally fears for her life and the life of her family? She lets someone else tell her story, which is what this British woman is doing. We recently met an inspiring British woman who was looking for a place to live outside of her homeland, because Britain doesn’t seem as family friendly or even as woman friendly as it once did. What could be so bad about Britain, the legendary example nation to the world? Well, they are silencing women who speak out against the mistreatment of children. Here are the real words of a real British woman who, sadly, must remain anonymous for her safety.

From One of the Voiceless 

It might surprise you to be reading this article – in all honesty, it surprises me to be writing it. Perhaps, when you read the title, you imagined its author living in some cold, bleak, post-Soviet bloc, where the hangover from Communism still causes women to be afraid? If that is the case, you’d be wrong. This author speaks to you from rural England – that bastion of freedom – that land of the Mother of all Parliaments.

You might have heard, in recent years, of our crackdown on Free Speech: you’ve probably heard of high-profile cases, like that of Tommy Robinson, the activist-turned-journalist who, at the time of writing, has just been sentenced to six months in gaol for exposing Moslem child rape gangs. I’d be willing to bet, however, that you haven’t heard of Melanie Shaw, the whistle-blower who, in 2014, tried to highlight the paedophilic rape being perpetrated by members of the British Establishment and who, following a secret trial in 2017, has been illegally imprisoned, in solitary confinement, without access to medical treatment or legal advice, ever since. Ms. Shaw was herself a child in care who had been subjected to sexual abuse; as an adult she worked with children in the care system and attempted to shine a spotlight on the horrendous exploitation of vulnerable young people.

We aren’t sure where Melanie is now. In recent hearings, she hasn’t been in attendance. She has, to all intents to and purposes, been ‘disappeared’. Melanie Shaw has been silenced.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is far-fetched, conspiracy nonsense – I did, when I first heard about it. Sadly, though, this is not the case; Ms. Shaw’s plight is well-documented and can easily be researched – but she isn’t the only one.

https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/melanie-shaw-given-two-years-following-secret-court-hearing

In March this year, Catholic mother and journalist Caroline Farrow was arrested and detained for saying that the administration of hormonal treatment to teenagers which causes them to change sex is tantamount to child abuse. She argued that this insane practice of socially engineering children is a form of child cruelty – which it is. There can’t be any doubt about that. Those studies which it has been possible to research have shown that hormonal treatment has devastating, long term effects on children, leading to increased mental health issues and even suicide. In the very same month that Mrs. Farrow was arrested, five whistle-blowers from the taxpayer-funded Gender Identity Development Service NHS clinic quit their jobs after revealing that children as young as three were being subjected to unnecessary gender-reassignment treatment.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/07/nhs-transgender-clinic-accused-covering-negative-impacts-puberty/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6897269/Workers-transgender-clinic-quit-concerns-unregulated-live-experiments-children.html

Since her arrest, Caroline Farrow has been subjected to death threats and doxxing; her husband and children have been attacked. Farrow has received very little support from the Police in the face of these dangers – her opinions have rendered her an ‘unperson’ – Mrs. Farrow and her family, it appears, are not worth saving. Caroline Farrow has been silenced.

https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/caroline-farrow-tweets-under-police-16005190

In December 2018, Kate Scottow faced similar treatment, having been embroiled in a Twitter spat with a Stephanie Hayden, a transsexual woman. During their exchange, Scottow referred to Hayden by her former name, a process known as ‘dead naming’. For this crime, Ms. Scottow, a young mother of two small children, was arrested. She was taken away from her family and placed in Police custody; unable to breastfeed her infant child, she was denied access to sanitary protection products and had her computers and mobile devices seized. Ms. Scottow’s computer has still not been returned, thus making it impossible for her to complete her Masters’ degree in Forensic Psychology.

Kate Scottow too, then, has been silenced.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6687123/Mother-arrested-children-calling-transgender-woman-man.html

I wish I could say that it stops there – that this madness is a recent phenomenon from which we will soon recover but it is not so.

In November 2012, an unnamed couple from Rotherham, a town in the north of England, were involved in actively campaigning for the UK Independence Party (UKIP). At the behest of Rotherham Social Services, the couple’s three foster children were removed from their care. Not because they were poor parents – indeed, the opposite is true and witnesses testified to their kindness and dedication – their children were removed because of their politics. This family was ripped-apart by ‘wrong-think’, their children stolen by a council which has, since, become synonymous with scandal and cover-up after it transpired that it had actively hidden decades of rape and abuse of more than twelve-hundred white, Christian girls by Moslem child rape gangs. In an act of pure vindictiveness and spite, Rotherham Social Services destroyed that family and silenced those parents, forcing three vulnerable children back into the care system.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20474120

As I sit here, writing this, I am filled with shame at what my country has become. I know that my views – normal, rational, traditional views – are commonly held by most of the women in this country – but I also know that most of the women in this country are afraid to make their voices heard. We all know that the trans agenda, for example, is utter folly: of course hormonally treating children and rendering them permanently damaged and infertile is abuse. Obviously this is the case! Of course allowing half-naked men in bondage gear to twerk with young boys on the streets of our cities is paedophilic – of course it is sick – but who dares to say it?

Naturally, an immigration policy which promotes open borders to those who do not share our values and then a two-tier legal system which grants immunity to those who abuse our children is untenable and unsustainable.

Obviously a school curriculum which teaches infants about masturbation before they can read or write is immoral; naturally, teaching children about any form of sexuality, let alone homosexuality, transsexuality and onanism before they have even reached double figures is unethical. Equally, it goes without saying that promoting the Royal College of Midwives’ advice to young girls that abortion up until birth is just another form of contraception is not only inaccurate but evil.

Clearly, a Government which covers for paedophilic Establishment and Moslem rapists whilst imprisoning those who speak out against it is corrupt to its very core.

Yet who would dare to speak these truths?

So here I am, pregnant with our first child – and I write this under cover of anonymity. This isn’t because I have a taste for the dramatic or am being sensationalist – I am not doing it for effect. I am anonymous because I have a genuine, rational fear that my telling you all of this could lead to my arrest. I could be imprisoned … our child could be taken away. It is no exaggeration for me to tell you that my husband and I already have a contingency plan that I might, one day, have to seek refuge in Hungary with our daughter and that he would join us later. I have a very real fear too that my identity could be released, my businesses and reputation destroyed. There would no comeback – no defense in the Press. Our lives would be ruined. I would be done for.

I am not a high-profile celebrity, vying for attention … I am just a normal woman, a business owner, a wife, a Catholic, soon to become a mother … and I am telling you all of this because I am afraid – but I have not, yet, been silenced.

International Women’s Day 2019

March 8th is International Women’s Day. As an international women’s organization we participate in this day by remembering the women who brought us into the world, our mothers.

I met a woman the other day who was abused as a child. After that sexual abuse she wanted to stop being a woman, because she thought if she was a boy she would be safe from abuse. She hated her female body and even threw rocks at her private parts to try to damage them.

For years she hated herself and her womanhood. After years of emotional agony and even the occasional desire to commit suicide this woman found reparative therapy, some people call it conversion therapy. With the help of her therapist she was able to learn to love herself for the first time she could remember.

After a while this woman, who was now okay with being a woman, found the love of her life and got married. She explained that she now has children and realizes the real power here body has. She said she loves her woman/mother body now and rejoices in what her body parts can do.

Women are amazing! WOW loves men and boys too. All people are part of making society wonderful. But, women can grow another person inside of themselves. Women are vital for preserving a society, and create the most valuable products a society has, its people.

WOW celebrates International Women’s Day today by Celebrating Women and Mothers everywhere who nurture their societies toward more love and caring.

Join WOW for Utah’s Mom’s March for America

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The Mom’s March for America is a national gathering of mothers that WOW supports. It’s purpose is to bring recognition to the powerful influence of mothers in our homes, communities, and nation. In addition, the event’s purpose is to help Moms, “raise the bar of decency, civility, and liberty in our culture”. The main event is centered  in Omaha, Nebraska, and broadcast live so you can join the march wherever you are, but cities across America are hosting local events in support. Utah’s event is located in Bountiful. Go to momsmarcusa.com for more information.

“This is not a march walking down the street, shouting and carrying signs. This is a Cultural March; a celebration of the biggest cultural movement happening in America – the march that mothers make every day in their homes, neighborhoods, and businesses as they nurture their families, influence their communities and shape our nation.” momsmarchusa.com

Freeing Fathers from False Identities

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The role of fatherhood seems to have been under attack for a good portion of my 42 years of life. When I was very young, I watched “The Brady Bunch.” It featured a smart and socially appropriate father whose children turned to him for wisdom. Other programs like “Little House on the Prairie” also had strong fathers. In that show “Pa,” or Charles Ingalls, was the wisest man in just about all of Walnut Grove. However, gradually fathers like Mike Brady, Andy Griffith and Charles Ingalls were replaced in pop culture media by weak — and eventually even dysfunctional — fathers who didn’t know enough to lead their families or navigate life’s problems.

This attack on the role of fathers seems too intentional to be a mistake. Are fathers in the media portrayed as dimwit dads and bumbling or even savage idiots because dysfunction sells? Or could it be something else?

My family was featured on a BBC reality TV show in 2009 where two dysfunctional teens came to our very functional home to stay for 8 days. The world saw these two teens, who came from homes where a father wasn’t present, bond with our family — including my husband. The world saw a glimpse of a real, live functioning family life. By the end of this TV series, these two teens calmed down and ended up begging not to leave our home.

Today James, the then 17-year-boy in the program, always asks about my husband, Spencer, whenever we have had a chance to reconnect. He loved having a father in his life for a week.

This TV program, which showed the power of a functional family, became “the most-watched episode ever,” according to the BBC. So, it seems clear that function sells. In fact, people really enjoy seeing functioning families. Viewers commented that our program was “inspiring” and “gave hope to families around the world.”

Then why are more and more TV shows destroying the image and identity of daddy, if not all men? Why do some people only see men as sensual animals or brainless leeches on society when they used to be known for their strength and wisdom as powerful examples to children and communities?

We used to look up to men and honor them. What has happened, and what could that mean for the identities of young boys who are growing into men? Why would the media want to destroy daddy? Who gains from making daddy look like a doofus?

Since children aren’t in charge of the media, they obviously aren’t the masterminds behind daddy getting an identity makeover. In fact, children are the target of the media’s messages, not the instigators of the messaging.

Mommies who are busy taking care of children and spending their efforts building good characters and forming good boys and girls wouldn’t benefit in any way from daddy being attacked. After all, if mommy wants her boys to be good daddies, then she wouldn’t spend her days talking about how her boys were destined to turn out like bumbling idiots after all her years of work and teaching. She would talk positively about the father of her children to her children and others. 

And, of course, daddy would never want to portray himself as nothing better than the butt of people’s jokes. Grandma and grandpa wouldn’t talk bad about daddy because they are still mothers and fathers. They understand how vital it is to have strong, wise fathers — even if things at their homes turned out less than perfect.

I guess those in our society who are left to attack daddy’s identity and reputation are those who aren’t mommies or daddies. In fact, most of the writers of the modern daddy-dissing sitcoms aren’t actually daddies yet. This makes sense since it’s always easier to disrespect someone you don’t relate to. Of course, mothers are also disrespected, but that’s a topic for another article.

What a Daddy Is Really Like

In 2016, a Pew Research Center study concluded, “Dads see parenting as central to their identity. They are just as likely as moms to say that parenting is extremely important to their identity.”

Overall, daddies like being daddies and they develop special bonds with their children that mothers simply can’t duplicate. Children raised by both parents have much greater gains academically and in their overall success and happiness than children who don’t live with both parents. Fathers provide stability, identity, safety, wisdom, comfort, and a special kind of love only daddies can give.

Daddies Are Not Mommies

It has become increasingly popular for daddies to help with their children in ways that historically mothers only did. This is a good thing. It’s wonderful that daddies are wanting more time to bond with their children and create stronger relationships.

That said, it isn’t required that a daddy behave in a nurturing way to be a good daddy. Daddies don’t have to change diapers and carry babies in packs on their bellies to be good daddies. Daddies don’t have to cook with their children or know how to braid hair to be good daddies.

Daddies who throw balls in the yard, wrestle with the girls and the boys, tease a bit, work hard to provide for the family, tell jokes, and repair things are just as important as daddies who have tea parties and do face painting.

When people think about what makes their dad special, it’s usually simply the presence he had in their life. It’s that he was there to support them, even if he knew nothing about tap dancing or paper folding. Daddies provide strength to their children through a look, a kind word, a sincere correction, and a story from his past.

Daddies don’t need to be mommies. They actually never can be.

If daddies are devalued, then the whole family is devalued. Maybe that’s the point of all the attacks. Maybe the family in general is under attack, with the twisted thought that if the father’s main protector role in the family is diminished, then you can weaken the whole family. Weak families don’t have much positive influence on society.

I know it seems crazy that people wouldn’t want the world to be a family loving place, but unfortunately, there are those who have very negative ideas about families. For whatever reason, there are those who think they might feel a little bit better if they can convince themselves that families are synonymous with dysfunction. Well, don’t believe it. Celebrate the family this year, even if yours is less than ideal, by celebrating good fathers as a source of strength for the family and our world. Happy Father’s Day to all!

 

Defending Motherhood

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Considering the consistent shouts for equality for women and the blatant attacks on motherhood, motherhood needs defending.

I’m fairly certain public school had a negative effect on me and my identity. When I was a small girl, I loved nothing more than playing house, taking care of my baby dolls, and babysitting. But, by the time I was in the fifth grade, even though I still requested new dolls for gift-giving holidays, I stopped telling my friends I wanted to be a mom. In fact, I was pretty sure it wasn’t cool to want to be a mom.

At school, teachers talked about all the great things women could do that men did, but being a mother and having a child was never one of them. I guess that’s because men can’t have babies and become mothers. The teachers’ message was that all boys and girls were supposed to be the same, and girls could only be happy if they lived like boys. Looking back, I see now that the special things my female biology enabled me to do were being completely disregarded.

On and off the playground some of my friends said things like, “I might have one child, but only if it doesn’t get in the way of my career.” Even though I always had some discomfort inside about these selfishly motivated comments, I gave in to peer pressure and started saying similar things.

As a side effect of disrespecting motherhood, I sometimes became disrespectful, even belligerent, to my “out-of-touch,” weak mother. After all, she was “only” a mother, while other women were changing the world in such great ways through their chosen causes and careers.

I disconnected emotionally, logically and physically from my mother. When I did this, I naturally disconnected from my father and siblings too. Everything I was working toward was all about me. What I know now is that to maintain a disconnection and to rationalize my judgement of my mother, I had to disconnect from everyone. I sadly ignored the fact that my mother was the heart of our home, and everything there seemed to acknowledge her value and the importance of her role.

Motherhood Hit Me Hard!

My husband and I have four children. Plus, we fostered many difficult children over the years. For 19 years I’ve been an at-home-mom and a homeschooler. I refuel by teaching and playing with my children. What do I refuel from? In my spare time, I’m head of an international organization called, “The Worldwide Organization for Women,” and I’m the CEO of my company, “Teaching Self-Government.” These responsibilities require I do a lot of writing. They also bring many speaking opportunities worldwide, including at the United Nations and the World Congress of Families.

I’m not sharing these facts about my life to brag. Instead, I simply want to prove a vital point about the value and importance of motherhood to me and to the world. Some people think the career part of my bio and speaking at the United Nations are my most important accomplishments, but that simply is false. The most powerful and important part of who I am, and the thing that best allows me to help influence the world in positive ways is my motherhood. That role has had an incredible influence on the meaning and purpose of my life.

One sunny Mother’s Day, when I was about 15, my negative views of motherhood suddenly changed during a visit to my grandmother’s home. One by one I saw my relatives take turns expressing thanks for the profound influence my grandmother had on their lives and the power she possessed in her community and among her family and friends. When it was my turn to share something about my grandma, my heart had found a truth my mind had been rejecting for years: mothers are more powerful than anyone else in our societies because they change multiple people’s worlds every day. I ended up declaring that I wanted to be just like my grandmother and have a family like she had. The real meaning and purpose of motherhood hit me hard that day!

Mothers and grandmothers are powerful. They form our characters, set the example for happy living, heal our hearts, point the way to happiness and truth, and nurture our identities. All greatness stems back to the hand that formed and taught the great person.

Mothers may not all become the great writers, painters, composers or thinkers of the day, but they write, paint and compose on the hearts of the future writers, painters, composers and thinkers.

Motherhood is Under Attack

Today, many believe motherhood is akin to a servant position, while “true power” emanates from women in corporate leadership positions. There are more corporate women in the world than ever before. In some countries, like Jamaica, St. Lucia and Columbia, women are more likely to be the head of a company. It seems women have clearly received the message that they can do whatever kind of employment they desire.

Then why are more and more articles creeping into the media declaring, “Motherhood is Not a Woman’s Most Important Job”? Why attack motherhood?

In a recent article in Harper’s Bazaar, which caters to fashion-conscious women, columnist Jennifer Wright said that motherhood is “not the most important job there is… It is more like a very demanding volunteer position that you can never, ever get out of… producing a younger person is not necessarily the main contribution people make to the world.”

Not only are these statements misleading for women and grossly biased against functioning families (who rely heavily on a mother to unify and strengthen the whole family), but they also simply aren’t true. There is no greater contribution to the world than creating a good, secure, hard-working person who is willing to sacrifice for the greater good. Mothers do this every day by lovingly raising their children. Mothers either create greatness, or they don’t.

Greatness comes from knowing who you are. Parents teach that; it’s called identity. Loving parents give each of their children an identity in a family setting. They also lead their children to the truth about God, as well as the child’s role in His plan for the world. This in turn creates an identity with God.

Why Attack Motherhood?

Motherhood has always been attacked by the godless and the sensually minded of the world. Motherhood is as near to divinity as a person can get. A mother literally joins with God in bringing a soul to the world. A good mother trains her children to love goodness and to have a desire to devote their lives to making the world great, while at the same time helping others find their greatness. Children trained well by their mothers possess public and private virtue that sets them apart from an increasingly virtueless and selfish world.

It stands to reason that motherhood must be attacked by those who want to continue manipulating and having power over societies. To help them achieve this unrighteous dominion, they must keep mothers “in their place.” If popular opinion and negative sentiments about motherhood can be perpetuated, then mothers lose some of their positive and moral influence in societies.

I find it encouraging that articles such as the one cited above are being published. This means that for all you devoted mommy bloggers and proud mommy Face-bookers who keep talking about how much you love being a mother, it’s working. The world is getting the message. You are having an impact! These negative motherhood articles are rebuttals to your positive motherhood messages. This also means that the tabloid magazines (the ones that keep talking about what celebrity is having a baby next) are actually doing something good. Having a baby will always be one of the most exciting things to talk about. It’s such a miracle and a wonder!

It is interesting that sentiments against having children often end up making children look like they are bad for society. If motherhood is bad, then children, the product of motherhood, must be bad too. These messages are manipulative for our whole society.

An increasing number of women are discovering the negative lessons they learned in their youth about unhappiness in motherhood aren’t true. Recently I met an influential career woman on an airplane who heads a pharmaceutical company. We talked about life and our families. When I told her about my four children and introduced her to my daughter she said, “I wish I would have had more children. I kept thinking I would take the time to do that. I had the one, but he grew so fast, and I didn’t stop to enjoy it. If I would have had another baby, I would have stopped working altogether to enjoy the time for motherhood.”

As the president of the Worldwide Organization for Women, I see claims that some countries are doing better because statistics show they have a higher percentage of women working, while the United States is not doing as well because so many women are stay-at-home mothers. The conclusion of those studies is all wrong. Many in the United States continue to value home, family, motherhood, and child-rearing — while some other countries encourage their families to send mommy away from her family and off to work. And many mommies who choose to work (or who must work) oftentimes choose less demanding jobs with less hours so that they can have more time with their children. This is good prioritizing; not failed progress.

This isn’t to say that motherhood isn’t valuable to women who work. It still can be valuable. I work. Don’t forget that I own and run a business and lead an international nonprofit organization. I also write books and speak. But the center of it all is my motherhood. My identity as mother is more important than any other identity or title given to me. The way I spend my time reflects the deep commitment and honor I feel and cherish being a mother.

If you enjoyed reading this you will really enjoy “Roles: The Secret to Family, Business and Social Success” also by Nicholeen Peck

The Talk

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I have the privilege of being Mom to four wonderful daughters. As head of our little feminine sphere, I’ve had to initiate lots of mother/daughter chats of various sorts- biological, social, etc, and the cautionary type, especially of the opposite sex. The youngest has reached the age where some of these talks follow in rapid succession as her autonomy is increasing in various social situations.  I was feeling well seasoned in this area, she being the fourth, but as I pondered, I realized we needed an additional cautionary talk because of the moral confusion that abounds.

I introduced my new topic right before she left for an all girl’s camp. We reviewed about how traditionally boys and girls are separated for many activities at her age for the general protection of girl’s modesty and chastity. A religious environment of all girls and women leaders, aside from petty social drama, I had previously felt were safe places for her older sisters in regards to these, but not for her. I had to tell her she had to guard her modesty and chastity around girls and women as well.  I’ve heard one too many stories lately, where some young woman was totally blindsided by an aggressive, even abusive advance by another female. I didn’t tell her about any of the stories, and I discussed this in a manner that protected her conscience and modesty. Still, this was a sobering moment for me, but as a parent I’ve got to understand the times we live and adjust accordingly.  I have the feeling there will be many more new topics I’m going to have to add to our chats.

Daddies Who Slay Dragons

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4 year old Avery Vidrine explained fathers like this, “They work hard, slay dragons, and love us!” 

This 4 year old girl obviously knows what it means to be a father and a protector. She has seen evidence in her own life. Her mother, Emily, said that Avery sends her father off to work every day with the phrase, “Now Prince Charming, go slay the dragons but be safe!” 

Avery knows her father keeps her safe from dragons and other scary things and knows her father loves her enough to go away from her each day and do all that hard work. Obviously her mother has helped her have gratitude and understanding for her father’s way of life. But as I heard Emily talk about the great trust her young daughter has in her father I wondered if Avery really knew what dragons an honorable father must fight to maintain powerful in his role as father and husband. 

There is no greater example of strength than a virtuous man. Maybe this is why the media goes to such great effort to distract men from what is most important and will be the most fulfiling in their lives; family and virtue. Maybe this is why the media encourages us to think of fathers as clueless and selfish. These lies about the identity and role of fathers and husbands decrease respect and destroy hope in fatherhood. Additionally these lies don’t really make women look strong or smart, they make women look like oppressors of men. These false gender roles diminish happiness in family life and create confusion. 

Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers are happiest and most fulfilled when they have put their priorities in order and they are deeply attached and involved with their families. 

What Are The Dragons? 

Daddies really do have to fight dragons every day. Not only are voices in society trying to undermine their existence and importance but these voices are also teasing and tempting men like never before. The sexual assault on the virtue of men is intense. Sexual obsession and addiction steals the freedom of men every day. When attached to sexual obsession men become detatched from family relationships. They feel empty and alone in a pit of addiction. This is a dragon daddies have to slay on a daily basis. It takes constant and diligent effort and a deliberate appeal to God and truth for help. 

Daddies, husbands and virtuous men must also slay these dragons: 

Media or gaming addictions

Work and money addictions

Waking up every morning

Scheduling life so that they have time or what is most important; God and family

Taking good care of themselves

Conquer laziness and entitlement thoughts

Live within their means

Keeping their standards high when others around them don’t

The list could definately go on and on. There are so many dragons to fight.

Think of your daddy, your husband, or the young men in your life who are training to become daddies. Look how hard they fight to become the men they are meant to be. Sure they may lose a battle here and there, but they keep going forward to slay those dragons again and again. 

This year, on this this Father’s Day, I think Avery Vidrine has it just right about fathers, “They work hard, slay dragons, and love us.” She will be a great support to the men in her life because she knows they must fight hard. 

Whenever I think of Avery’s description I am going to remember it like this; they work hard to slay dragons because they love us. 

The Best Way To Slay A Dragon 

The best way to slay a dragon and protect a family is through prayer. When the dragons come, a strong daddy prays. When a strong, valiant daddy sees dragons attacking his family and is children, because they will, he prays for and blesses them. 

Fathers are often described as protectors. They are often more endowed with physical strength and stamina to be sure, but I think the greatest protection I have ever seen men give is spiritual protection. 

When daddy stops himself from following the dragon that is after him and falls to his knees for strength he is using the most powerful self-government skill he has. Our loving Heavenly Father helps our earthly fathers to become the protectors the world needs when they unify with him through faith and prayer.

Personal Message: Thank you Spencer for slaying dragons every day and for being a warrior our children can draw strength and clarity from in these difficult and confusing times. 

The Hopeful Mother

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The whole idea of motherhood is an implication of hope. Her business is about raising the next generation as she keeps an eye toward the future and the possibilities for her posterity, which fills her heart and mind with all sorts of ideals. Wouldn’t it then be strange, that mother in keeping to her duty would shun any idealizing of her own role with her being a causal agent in the child’s life? It is only my broad observation, but there appears to exist in the younger generation a sort of intellectual snobbery toward an ideal. An ideal is simply a vision of possibility.  I guarantee my life circumstances in so many areas, like most on the planet, have fallen short of an ideal clung to, but it has been the very  vision of the ideal that has fueled a  hope within, which in turn has moved me to better action, especially as Mom. I’ve always liked the title of President Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope. It implies to me a boldness of expectation in achievement of an ideal others might otherwise scoff at, but let them scoff.  I am grateful my faith affirms an ideal for motherhood.  A word like noble reminds me that although motherhood is universal, it is for no common purpose. Innately it stands dignified and principal. This truth transforms my monotonous and sometimes difficult tasks, though reality means not necessarily in the moment. Noble work doesn’t have to feel noble, and feeling one way or another does not diminish the reality of its importance. Angelic is another word that is often associated with the work of mothers. Why not when the work of angels is to minister, proclaim truth and stand in the trenches as warriors.  I need these ideals. They audaciously sustain my hope in me as a Mom, because when circumstances feel or truly are less than ideal, I know motherhood never is, never was and never will be.