All Women Are Mothers

                Families, communities, and nations are strengthened when girls and women realize they are all mothers whether or not they ever bear children in mortality. Heavenly Father gave the gift of motherhood to his daughters before they came to earth. This gift is observed in toddlers as they care for their dolls. This gift is a divine calling as important as priesthood.

                After God created the earth and everything upon it, He created Adam. All the beasts and birds were brought to Adam to be named, and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was their name. Then God created a helpmeet for Adam and brought her to him. Adam called his helpmeet “Woman” because “she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 23). “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). Adam said that Eve was the “mother of all living” before she bore any children. That means she brought the ability to be a mother with her to earth – just as all females do.

                Sister Sheri L. Dew, then Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, spoke to the sisters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a talk titled “Are We Not All Mothers?” (Ensign, November 2001). She shared a story of taking four nieces to one of her speaking appointments and needing to walk through “an enormous mob of drunken parade-goers.” She “better understood how mothers who forgo their own safety to protect a child must feel. My siblings had entrusted me with their daughters, whom I love, and I would have done anything to lead them to safety. Likewise, our Father has entrusted us as women with His children, and He has asked us to love them and help lead them safely past the dangers of mortality back home….

                “Motherhood is not what was left over after our Father blessed His sons with priesthood ordination. It was the most ennobling endowment He could give His daughters, a sacred trust that gave women an unparalleled role in helping His children keep their second estate. As President J. Reuben Clark Jr. declared, motherhood is `as divinely called, as eternally important in its place as the Priesthood itself.’…

                “For reasons known to the Lord, some women are required to wait to have children. This delay is not easy for any righteous woman. But the Lord’s timetable for each of us does not negate our nature. Some of us, then, must simply find other ways to mother. And all around us are those who need to be loved and led….

                “… Every time we build the faith or reinforce the nobility of a young woman or man, every time we love or lead anyone even one small step along the path, we are true to our endowment and calling as mothers and in the process we build the kingdom of God. No woman who understands the gospel would ever think that any other work is more important or would ever say, `I am just a mother,’ for mothers heal the souls of men….

                “As mothers in Israel, we are the Lord’s secret weapon. Our influence comes from a divine endowment that has been in place form the beginning….”

                Righteous women and girls can love and lead others to Christ by using their God-given gift of motherhood. They can use this great gift to strengthen families, communities, and nations.