President Hinckley On The Greatest Service That Any Woman Will Ever Perform

In my reading this morning I came across this remarkable statement by Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about the supreme importance of motherhood as the greatest service any woman will ever perform. It is not a message the world welcomes and unfortunately even some in the Church do not welcome it. I attribute that to not understanding correctly the plan of salvation and the doctrine of the gospel related to it. My witness is that he was a Prophet of God and his words should be given great consideration, thought, and prayer regardless of our personal preferences on the subject. The President gave these remarks to a regional conference in May 1995:

In this age when more and more women are turning to daily work, how tremendous it is, once in a while, to stop and recognize that the greatest service that any woman will ever perform will be in nurturing, teaching, lifting, encouraging, and rearing her children in righteousness and truth. There is no other thing that will compare with that regardless of what she does. 

I hope that the women of the Church will not slight their greatest responsibility in favor of a lesser responsibility. To the mothers of this church, every mother who is here this day, I want to say that, as the years pass, you will become increasingly grateful for that which you did in molding the lives of your children in the direction of righteousness and goodness and integrity and faith. 

I think I can share this with you. As I sat in the Tabernacle at the last conference and was sustained by the people of this church, there came before me in my mind’s eye, the picture of my mother when I was a little boy. And I’m sure she must have thought then that I wouldn’t amount to much because I was not an easy little boy to deal with. I am grateful that I have the opportunity in my old age to bring honor to her name.... 

It’s been the mothers who have been the great carriers and purveyors of faith through the history of this Church. I believe that with all my heart.*

Lets think together again, soon.

*Gordon B. Hinckley, address at the Heber City/Springville, Utah, regional conference, 14 May 1995, in “Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign (December 1995), p. 67.