I have learned that what I think I will remember forever… I don’t.  No matter how adorable I think it is when my daughter says mashed “potables” or how cute it is when she wants to go and says, “ It’s very, very time to go,” …these details, I do forget.   Those precious memories are replaced with new precious memories, and lost are the details of life that brought such humor and insight to our every day. The way I do recall these memories, like the time my older daughter noticed the very last leaf on a fall tree, is by recording the moment in a Mother’s Journal. 

When my children were toddlers, I began keeping a journal for each child.  In it I have jotted down random memories, as listed above.  These books are a handwritten keepsake that will be a very special gift to my children someday, as they already are a special gift to my husband and I right now.  Every once in a while we will take some time to read them aloud to one another.  As we do, I can honestly say, that reading the journals bring tears to ours eyes whether by laughter or simply our hearts feeling full of deep love and pride in the little people we are helping to raise.  It is through these journals that we become ever more aware that Heavenly Father has trusted us to raise His children.  Their personality, character and spirit have been there from the beginning.

 The scriptures remind us, “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Ps. 127:3).   President Gordon B. Hinkley said, “Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these little ones… Now, love them, take care of them. Take care of your little ones, welcome them into your homes and nurture and love them with all of your hearts”

Keeping a Mother’s Journal is one way that I can treasure time with my children and preserve our family heritage.  Over time, the random notations recorded in their journals will stand as a testimony that my children come from a home and family that “knows that the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily mothering is far more lasting, far more powerful, far more influential than any earthly position or institution invented by man.”  Motherhood is truly a sacred calling and partnership with the Lord.   Let us not forget the details of our children’s lives; for it is the details that form the individual and allow us a complete understanding of His great plan.

By Beth

Gordon B. Hinckley, Salt Lake University Third Stake conference, 3 Nov. 1996; in Church News, 1 Mar. 1997, 2

Julie B. Beck, “A Mother Heart,” Liahona, May 2004, 75-77