Come, Follow Me
How can I prepare now to become a righteous wife and mother?

How can I prepare now to become a righteous wife and mother?

Prepare Yourself Spiritually

To prepare to be a righteous wife and mother, young women should focus on the Savior and on developing Christlike attributes. The family proclamation says that “successful marriage and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. … Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2017, 145).

Resources to Help You Prepare

These resources are to help you prepare for the “Learn together” section of the meeting.

Questions to Ponder before You Teach

What have you done, and what are you doing, to prepare to be a wife and mother? How has your preparation blessed your life?

What are the young women in your class doing (or what could they be doing) to prepare for marriage and motherhood? What questions might they have about preparation for marriage and motherhood?

What can the young women do to prepare to learn? For example, they could read a talk, watch a video, or study a scripture related to this doctrine.

Teaching in the Savior’s Way

After a day of teaching, the Savior invited His followers to go home and prepare themselves to come back and learn more. What can you do to encourage the young women to come to class prepared to learn together?

Meeting Outline

1. Counsel Together and Share Experiences

Led by a member of the class presidency; approximately 5–10 minutes

Lead a discussion about items such as the following:

  • Our class: Who is missing today? What visits do we need to make? Who should we invite to an upcoming activity? Who needs our help and prayers?

  • Our responsibilities: What assignments do we need to make? What assignments have we fulfilled? How have we invited others to come unto Christ, and how can we invite others now?

  • Our lives: Remind the class of the discussion from the last meeting. What experiences have we had with applying what we learned? What experiences have we had in the past few weeks that strengthened our testimonies of the gospel?

If possible, discuss these items beforehand in a class presidency meeting.

2. Learn Together

Led by a leader or teacher or a member of the class; approximately 25–35 minutes

After studying the above resources and following the inspiration of the Spirit, you may select one or more of the activities below to help class members understand the doctrine.

  • Can you think of an object lesson that would help the young women understand what it means to be sin-resistant? For example, you could bring an umbrella and a sponge to class and show how one object resists water and the other absorbs it. How does this comparison relate to resisting sin? Invite the young women to search Sister Joy D. Jones’s talk “A Sin-Resistant Generation” and make a list of things that they could do when they are mothers to raise sin-resistant children. How can doing the things on their lists now prepare them to be righteous wives and mothers?

  • Invite the young women to read about Elder K. Brett Nattress’s mother in his talk “No Greater Joy Than to Know That They Know.” What attributes did Sister Nattress have that the young women would like to emulate as they prepare for motherhood? What did she do to raise a righteous family? They could also watch one or more of the videos suggested in this outline and discuss similar questions. What examples of righteous parents have the young women seen? What do the young women feel they can do to follow these examples now?

  • Assign each young woman a few verses to read from some of the scriptures suggested in this outline. Invite each young woman to draw a picture or symbol or write a brief sentence representing the characteristics of a righteous wife and mother found in her assigned verses. Share the pictures or sentences with the class, and discuss together how a young woman can acquire these characteristics. Ask the young women to share examples of mothers like those described in Proverbs. How are the families of these mothers blessed? Why is a “virtuous woman” so valuable to the Lord? (see Proverbs 31:10).

  • Ask the young women to write on the board a list of righteous women in the scriptures (for example, Ruth, Esther, Eve, Hannah, Emma Smith, and so on). Invite them to choose one woman from the list and read about her in the scriptures (using the Topical Guide or Bible Dictionary). Encourage the young women to share what virtuous traits they recognize and admire in these women and how these traits could help them prepare to be a righteous wife and mother.

  • Assign each young woman to read a section of Brother Devin G. Durrant’s message “Teaching in the Home—a Joyful and Sacred Responsibility” and write a letter to her future self about how she will incorporate the type of teaching in that section in her home. How do the young women think that type of teaching will bless their future families? Give the young women opportunities to share what they wrote in their letters or examples of good teaching they’ve experienced.

3. Plan to Act

Led by a member of the class presidency; approximately 5–10 minutes

  • Ask the young women to discuss any feelings or impressions they had during the meeting. What was meaningful to them? Is there something they can do personally or as a class to apply what they have learned?

  • Give the young women a few minutes to record what they will do in the coming weeks to act on their impressions. Invite them to share their ideas.

  • Remind the young women that they will have the opportunity to share their experiences at the beginning of the next meeting.

Related Youth Activities

Plan a Mutual activity that will help the young women apply what they learned in this lesson.