Stand As Witnesses of God's Love

Each Sunday young women across the church recite the promise that they will “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places" (Young Women Theme, Mosiah 18:9). These beloved daughters of God are preparing to fulfill the important missions He has assigned to them. As I ponder the importance of sacrifice in divine love, I realize that the Lord has entrusted each mother with the responsibility to stand as the first witness of His love to her children. Even before our babies are born, we witness of the Savior’s selfless love when we endure morning sickness, overwhelming fatigue and the painfully stretched body that is required to create a physical body for them. We testify that our Savior loved us enough to suffer for us while we labor to give our children birth. We teach of God’s constant loving care while nursing babies in the middle of the night, even as we weep in the darkness from exhaustion. A mother’s tenderness prepares her children to recognize the tender mercies (Psalms 145:9, 1 Nephi 1:20) of the Lord throughout their lives. In His perfect plan, our Heavenly Father ordained that children would experience His love from the very beginning of mortality through their mother. The testimony of mothers stands even stronger when fathers engage in the parenting to stand as additional witnesses of God’s love.
         
The prophet Nephi was given a vision about the love of God (1 Nephi 11) when he approached the Lord with his questions about a similar vision given to his father. Nephi saw a beautiful tree, and when he asked for the interpretation, he was first shown the mother of Jesus. Then he saw scenes from Jesus’ ministry, including His death. In this vision Mary stood as a first witness of God’s love, and all mothers have the opportunity to follow her example and testify through our lives of the selfless love of our Savior. Women who do not have the opportunity to become mothers in this life also find ways to stand as witnesses of God’s love and thereby find great purpose and fulfillment. My unmarried sister is a good example to me of this. She nurtures relationships with her nieces and nephews despite the great cost in time and money. She reaches out in love to family members who no longer come to church. If they ever decide to come back, their way will be easier because she has witnessed to them of God’s unfailing love for them. Like my sister, women do not need to wait for marriage and motherhood to begin standing as witnesses of God’s love in ways that bring significant blessings to God’s children.
         
The worldly voices around us do not encourage women in making sacrifices to stand as witnesses of God’s love. The idea that men’s roles and responsibilities are more important and Godly than women’s roles and responsibilities is confusing to many. Even for good women, it is easy to be swayed by the idea that having children and caring for them is nothing but drudgery, and the important accomplishments in life are found elsewhere. I remember a time during college when I realized how greatly I had been blessed with opportunities to learn. My parents and countless teachers, coaches and other leaders had invested much in my growth. I pondered about why the Lord had granted me so many opportunities to be educated and develop talents. I thought He surely must have some great mission for me to accomplish later in life, but I could not imagine what it might be. Several years later I learned the answer. As I sat on my bed rocking my first newborn baby, the Lord brought that question back to my mind. The warmth of the Spirit wrapped around me and confirmed that this was why the Lord had invested so much in me. I could not perceive it as a college student, but mothering my children was the significant mission that required so much preparation.
         
How important is the responsibility to teach of God’s love? When Jesus was asked to state the greatest commandment, He responded, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40). Paul taught, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love" (Galatians 5:14, also 1 Timothy 1:5). As I ponder these verses, the Lord helps me see how His gospel really does ‘hang on’ or have its basis in love. All of the commandments have charity, or Godly love, as their underpinning – love of God, His love for us, and the charity we feel for our neighbors. The second commandment is interpreted to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, but Jesus taught a higher way to love others. “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). We are to love and serve others as Jesus loved and served, and when we are filled with charity, living His gospel of loving service feels natural.
         
I remember hearing a counselor talk about the emotional damage people experience when they do not experience love from and develop a strong attachment to a caretaker early in life. I realized that while caring for my little children, I was fulfilling more than just their physical needs. I was also nurturing their capacity to love throughout their lives. The ability to love does not develop in a vacuum. We develop the capacity to love – and live the gospel – by experiencing God’s love, and we do that first through the love of our mothers. How grateful we are for the hope of healing through the Atonement for those who do not receive love early in life. Women have divine gifts that make them especially capable of sharing Christ’s nurturing and healing power with those who have missed out on love in their lives. As mothers we can spare our children much hardship by fulfilling their need to be encircled in the arms of their mother’s love – and thereby in God’s love (2 Nephi 1:15) – from the beginning of life.  
          
Jesus set the perfect example of how to teach of Godly love, or charity. He set aside His great capacities and important responsibilities as “the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning” (Helaman 14:12) to come down to earth, live as a mortal, and serve. Throughout His ministry, Jesus made time to minister to individuals, not just large audiences. Mothers follow this pattern when we set aside other talents and opportunities for recognition to care for each of our children. At the last supper, Jesus humbly washed the dirty, smelly feet of the apostles. Does this not parallel the service of mothers who spend their days changing smelly diapers and cleaning up the other messes their little ones make? Is there a more pure way to love “not . . . in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and truth?" (1 John 3:18) Even though Jesus was the Son of God, every knee did not bow to Him during His mortal life – that will come later (Romans 14:11, Mosiah 27:31). So we who follow His way should not be surprised that we do not receive full recognition for our work in this life, important though it is. God always sees and blesses those who serve Him, but often those blessings are not fully manifest until the next life.
         
In the plan of salvation, women were not assigned the labors of mothering because we were not capable of anything greater. Rather, the Lord expressed great trust in women when He assigned us the crucial responsibility to stand as the first witnesses of His love to our children and thereby introduce them to the Godly love which supports the entire gospel. With this perspective in mind, we understand that every sacrifice that is required of us as women and mothers can prepare us to love as our Savior loves.