Using her own mother as the example of a woman with a "mother heart," Sister Julie B. Beck related Sunday morning, "All the knowledge she had acquired, all her natural abilities and gifts, all her skills, were channeled into an organization that had no earthly bounds. As a covenant-keeping daughter of God, she had prepared all her life for motherhood."
Sister Beck, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, asked, "What is a 'mother heart' and how is one acquired?" She then used scriptural examples from Proverbs 31 to answer. "A woman with a 'mother heart' has a testimony of the restored gospel, and she teaches the principles of the gospel without equivocation. She is keeping sacred covenants made in holy temples. Her talents and skills are shared unselfishly. She gains as much education as her circumstances will allow, improving her mind and spirit with the desire to teach what she learns to the generations who follow her."
Female roles did not begin here and do not end here, she continued. "A woman who treasures motherhood on earth will treasure motherhood in the world to come. . . . By developing a 'mother heart,' each girl and woman prepares for her divine, eternal mission of motherhood."
Sister Beck said that in her experience "some of the truest 'mother hearts' beat in the breasts of women who will not rear their own children on this earth, but they know that 'all things must come to pass in their time' and that they 'are laying the foundation of a great work' " (Doctrine and Covenants 64: 32-33).
Continuing, Sister Beck related how she recently asked a young mother with an advanced university degree how she transferred her talents so cheerfully. The woman answered: "I know who I am. I know what I am supposed to do. The rest just follows."
"Covenant-keeping women with mother hearts know that whether motherhood comes early or late; whether they are blessed with a 'quiver full' of children here in mortality or not; whether they are single, married, or are left to carry the responsibility of parenthood alone; in holy temples they are 'endowed with power from on high' (Doctrine and Covenants 38:32) and with that endowment they receive the promised blessings and are 'persuaded of them, and embraced them' " (Hebrews 11:13).
