Guest Blogger: Anna "Life Lessons"

My niece Anna is brilliant, compassionate and an amazing mother. After graduating with her masters degree from Harvard she promptly gave birth to three darling babies in three years. Her husband is finishing up his second year of medical school.

Anna posted her evolving thoughts regarding motherhood this week on her private blog and I felt they were poignant and wanted to share it. She gave her permission to repost it here. I think you'll enjoy it too.

And if you want to read more thoughts on motherhood, check out my friend Rachel's post *here* and then watch the newest Mormon Messages video "My New Life" featuring Stephanie Nielson (of the NieNie Dialogues).

Life Lessons

Today, as I was talking to my psychiatrist (yes, I see a psychiatrist and she's the best), we talked about expectations. Apparently mine are a little too high. I told her the type of mother and homemaker and woman I want to be and she said: "you just described June Cleaver. That person doesn't exist."


I didn't believe her. I said: "it is going to take a lot of sessions of you saying that for me to maybe believe you."


She put it another way: "the myth of this generation is that women can do and have it all. we can run marathons, have 12 hobbies, work, raise our kids, have "me" time, read, cook, etc. That just isn't possible. We choose some of those things at the expense of other things, often our children. Is that the image of womanhood you want to depict for your daughters? That you have to be perfect to be worth it?"



No, I definitely don't want that.



And then I thought about my conversations with Grant about faith. Or my hour spent reading to Audrey. Or singing Follow the Prophet 4000 times this week and talking about each one. Or just drinking smoothies with my kids and laughing at all our smoothie mustaches.



Sister Beck said: "Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power."



My children deserve all the love, attention and teaching I can give them. They really don't want more than that. And, neither do I