Monday, October 18, 2010

love and respect

I have been blessed and changed by becoming a mother.  It has helped me to better understand my role on this earth.  I was blessed with the gift of four wonderful boys which have helped me to appreciate and love boys in a way I am not sure I could have learned without being a mother of sons.  They are tender hearted , sweet children that feel just as girls do...sometimes with more scrutiny from society.   I have a teenage boy who has many friends both boys and girls that come to our home often.  They are great kids and I love to talk with them.  I find it interesting to hear the different views from the different boys about girls.  I find it interesting their feelings about the way girls view themselves.  I have tried to teach my sons that girls and women are special...just as they are....but that as boys they have a responsibility to respect girls.  I am very conscientious of this because I see and know so many girls that don't even afford themselves this respect.   I absolutely kills me to see women, especially, not understand how powerful being a woman is.    I must admit it took me time to understand this myself, there was a time I said I would NEVER have children.  I was not going to be stereotyped!  I have been blessed to have a baby girl this past year and it has changed our home.  She is not loved anymore than our other children but she has brought something special to our home.  I have been having a hard time pin pointing what it is that is different until a few weeks ago when I was talking with a friend and she expressed it perfectly.  She explained how amazing her son was and how much she loves him but how there is just something different about her daughter.  She then said, " it really shows how much our Father in heaven must feel about each of us as his daughters."  I am sure she has no idea how much that statement has stuck with me but it is so true.  Our father in heaven has a deep respect for women.  He wants us to have that same respect for ourselves.  To see that the tasks of mothering are what can bring us joy if we have the right attitude.  To touch our children's lives and others around us is a gift bestowed upon women.  I am so grateful that I have the family that I have....my babies and husband are amazing and they have really given my life a meaning that I never knew it could have.