Testimony of a Young Mother

We are the weavers of our own lives. Our parents, our teachers, our bishop, and our friends all have an influence upon the strands we use and the pattern we form, but we alone through our own efforts and achievements will weave the fabric of our lives here and in the life hereafter.

Have you ever attempted to make something without a pattern or without a purpose? Expert weavers must follow carefully the details of a pattern in order to achieve a superior, long-lasting fabric. We must follow the pattern the Lord has given us for a lasting and happy life, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Over and over, every day of our lives, we are tested to see how efficient we are in using the precious strands that construct our life’s fabric. We would be wise to confer with our Heavenly Father and to waste no time and energy in unweaving false ideas and unworthy deeds. Although repentance is available to all who sincerely seek it, valuable time is wasted in undoing a mistake and beginning anew.

At this time of controversy over women’s liberation, there is indeed a challenge for us to use wisely our various life strands and to weave the right ideals and attitudes into the precious fabric of motherhood.

The Lord has made it very clear that a woman’s chief responsibility is to multiply and to replenish the earth; to be at home to raise and guide her children; and to be a helpmate to, instead of competitor of, her husband.

When I graduated from Brigham Young University with a four-year nursing degree, it was a dream come true. I felt it to be a special accomplishment because during the last demanding year before graduation, I had also managed to get married and have a baby.

Then I received an offer from a technical college to teach in its nursing program. This was an exciting opportunity—I could put my nursing skills to work and also teach, something I have always loved to do. My husband agreed that I should accept the offer on a part-time basis.

In the beginning the job was exciting, but before long I began to miss the things I loved about being a wife and a mother, the special, important things. And I found that I took my energy and enthusiasm to work and left them there. All my family saw was the tired, unambitious side of me.

Before the end of the quarter, I was forced to quit because I was pregnant again and some complications had arisen. Flat on my back for weeks, I had a great deal of time to think. I thought about the important strands in the fabric of my life—those that were needed most at this time, the ones to be woven by a mother and wife.

I found that there is no satisfaction as great as being a full-time wife and mother. I am glad I have chosen to weave, according to the divine purpose, a life pattern in my home that will be, I pray, strong and everlasting.

—Marsha Castleton

Art by Phyllis Luch