I am a Home Maker

About four months after I had my first child in 1987, I became a permanent "homemaker."  I was no longer able to fill out "Occupation" lines on documents with a fancy-titled career, nor was I able to come up with a sophisticated way to describe my new job as a mother with any of the dignified words used to describe other chosen careers.  When people asked questions like, "What do you do?" or "Where do you work?"  my simple answer to refer to a not-so-simple job was "I'm just a mom."  I have since removed the word "just" because it does not begin to give credibility to the incredible journey that motherhood is.  I have also decided that while I may have started out as a homemaker, I am now a Home Maker.  This is my job title.  After six kids, one dog, 2 frogs, multiple stunt hamsters (I call them this due to their miraculous ability to squeeze their way behind walls, only to be found days later--alive-- behind a wall outlet), I have learned that a mother has the power to make or break the atmosphere in her home.  When I think of a "homemaker," I picture a robe-wearing, unshowered-for-days woman, who has given control of her life over to her six offspring.  I think of my 20-30 something self.  However, to quote one of my favorite college professors, Marie Hafen, "Now, almost  twenty years later, I understand.  After all the diapers, the bruises, the washing, the cheering, the cleaning up, the pleading, the nail-biting, the crying, the laughing, the pacing, and the praying, I understand.  I feel about raising children the way Ammon [a Book of Mormon prophet] felt about missionary work: And this is the account of Ammon and his brethren, their journeyings in the land of Nephi, their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy."

The Book of Mormon says of our struggles that the Lord "shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." As I turn my life over to Him, I learn that there is a link between the depth of sorrows, toil and affliction that a mother feels and the depth of joy she feels in her life.  As I recognize the divine nature of my role as a mother, I realize the power that a woman's attitude, actions, and love have on the type of a home "made" for children.   I also recognize the enormous responsibility that I have to make choices that will proactively and positively affect those within my care.  While all but one of my children are now grown, I will always be their mother.  As a mother, I am a partner with God.  He made this earth as a home for me so that I could make a home for His children.  I am a Home Maker. It is a job title that is often misunderstood and underestimated by the world, but it is a job title I am proud of.

Motherhood

Sleeping soundly, so unaware,

So peaceful, soft, without a care. 

I pray each night you're safe and warm

From every day's encircling storm.

Some say this is no place to raise a child,

So small, so pure, so meek, so mild.

But me, I tend to disagree . . . 

This child, it seems, is raising me.

(Eliza Terry Roylance)