This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2013 Conference.
Elder Christoffersen's talk, The Moral Force of Women, was so good. I've been thinking about this quote from it (about a women he knew and admired):
Her ability to perform feats of lifting, bending, and balancing with her children was near superhuman. The demands on her were many and her tasks often repetitive and mundane, yet underneath it all was a beautiful serenity, a sense of being about God’s work.
I'm not sure exactly what he meant by "lifting, bending, and balancing," but I find a lot of symbolism in those words. I'm surprised how much all these things are required in motherhood while figuring out how to raise children to make a happy home. Lifting others out of discouragement, balancing justice and mercy, figuring out which rules need to be bent and which held fast. We have to try to bend our own preferences and even our hopes into a shape that fits our family. We have to try to balance one child's needs with another's capacities. We have to scramble for the higher ground so we can be the lifter of everything—the family mood, the family vision, the family culture. How can anyone find "serenity" while doing all those gymnastics? I guess it's only through remembering, as this woman did, that we are about God's work—and He will make it possible.
