The Influence of a Righteous Woman

Yesterday our home teacher came over and gave us the message for this month. It is by Elder Uchtdorf and is titled, "The Influence of Righteous Women". It is a really wonderful message to read, so make sure you read it! There is a quote from President Grant that says,
"Without the devotion and absolution testimony of the living God in the hearts of our mothers, this Church would die."

The article talks a lot about the little things that we women do, thinking that they are so inconsequential, but we don't seem to know that everything we do makes a big difference. One of Satan's big tactics is to convince us that we don't make a difference to anyone, no matter what we say or do. But really we can prove him wrong by simply putting our creative skills to use, or calling someone to see how they are doing, or any number of things where we reach out to others.

I feel like this message has something for everyone. If you are like me, and struggle to think that anything you do makes a difference to anyone- this message is for you. Or if you are the overachiever who feels like there is so much to be done and that you will never succeed at helping everyone, this message is for you. Or if you have any other misnomers about your special purpose and heritage as a woman in the church, this article is for you!

My home teacher shared a personal observation with us that I want to pass along. He said there were two families he knew who came together when, in one of them the husband went inactive and a bit nuts and the other one had the wife go inactive and a bit nuts. The active husband and the active wife met each other from the two separate families, got married and joined their families together. This brought together many children who were quite different. What he noted, however, was that the active mother's children were very active in the church. But the active father's children were all inactive in the church. He used this story to explain how important a mother's testimony is in the home for her children.

After hearing this story, I thought- yeah true, but the father can make a big difference too. I remember learning about this in my religion classes at BYU. But I guess that was not the point of the message in this month's Ensign. So, therefore let us embrace the divinity within ourselves and seek to reach our true potentials and influence others for the good.