The Expanding challenge of Motherhood

“God did not condemn His daughters to a menial task. I learned things in the trenches of full-time motherhood I could have learned nowhere else. I am ever grateful and will ever be grateful for those years where God expanded my soul. He expanded every part of me. I became much more intelligent. I became a much better person, as God does not condemn anybody to a place of no growth, ever. There’s always the potential for exaltation in whatever we do …
There was nothing more challenging than I’ve ever done in my whole life… Graduate school was a breeze. But being home with my children and trying to understand how best to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the other good things of the world, that was the most soul and mind-expanding thing I have ever done. And I learned more from that than I could have ever learned in any other setting.”

~Lili de Hoyos Anderson

I love this quote from Lili de Hoyos Anderson. She says so well how much glory and growth there is in caring for and nurturing children.

On the other hand, I watched my friend’s three kids on Saturday, and I’m really glad that I’m not a mom of children under five anymore. I did my time, and it was sometimes wonderful and sometimes terrible, and now I’m kind of old to chase three-year-olds around.