Make that Home!

Our newly called apostle, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, told us during General Conference that LDS women are “makers of the home”. I loved that! I am a MAKER of a HOME.

When we were first married, I taught school for three years while we anxiously waited for our babies to come. We tried to save most of what I made and then adjust to living on Richard’s income as much as possible (believe me, as a Federal worker, it wasn’t much!!). We planned carefully that way so that I could stay home when a baby FINALLY came along. When baby boy came, I quit teaching school that very day. I was now a HOMEMAKER. Homemaker? Hmm…. That didn’t fit me. It seemed like an old-fashioned term, and I didn’t feel like an old- fashioned woman.

So, every time I had to fill out a form where I had to put “occupation”, I would write “Stay at Home Mom”, or “Full-time Mom”. Even though I have always done a little part-time job here and there, I emphatically told Richard that when people asked him what his wife did, he could NOT say I was a Homemaker. Sometimes we would try to be funny and would say or write “Domestic Engineer” or “Domestic Goddess”.

Times have changed. Mormon wives don’t always have the option to be a stay-at-home mom in order for their families to make ends meet. Some of them don’t choose that anyway. Some women choose to “stay home”, but don’t do much with that opportunity to truly nurture and teach their children. I haven't always been perfect at that myself. I am not here to judge. I am just grateful for the way our lives have been blessed by the choices we made in that department. It even matters more now as we still raise our teenage daughter.

So, back to my original point – All women, single or married, working out of the home, working in the home, staying at home,

we can all be the MAKER of the home.

That little phrase should put to rest all the arguments and jealousies regarding this “issue” amongst LDS women.