- Image via Wikipedia
It Wasn’t Supposed To Happen
This has never happened before. At least not the way it did today. It shattered the trust that has defined [...]
- Cover of Is God a Mathematician?
I’m reading a great book right now called “Is God A Mathematician?” by Mario Livio. It’s a fascinating book about whether mathematics is discovered or invented. It’s a really interesting book (so far) and has really gotten me excited about math, again.
It got me thinking about how I was taught math and why I disliked math so much. I remembered some of the things I learned and, for whatever reason, focused on the formula for the area of a circle: (A = ?r2).
What I asked myself was, “why is that the formula of a circle? Why, if you multiply the radius times itself and then times pi, some constant, do you get the area of the circle?” After digging into this, I realized why I didn’t like math in school.
My favorite quote is this one:
“Mothers, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones. Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are, better than you are, and better than you have ever been.”
Read the full text here.
I recently took down a blog post for the first time ever. If I thought the post were merely poorly-written or I was wrong about my position, I wouldn’t have taken it down.
But I draw the line at hurting people who are genuinely doing their best.
The post tackled the very sensitive subject of mothers working while raising children. I don’t feel I gave the proper context around my opinions and beliefs and a close friend told me the post hurt her feelings. I spent a good deal of time thinking about it and talking it over with Heidi. In the end, I decided to take it down and give myself some time to think about how I wanted to approach this subject that I feel very strongly about.
Instead of tackling just the subject of working mothers, I’ll step back a little and start with a broader context: families. Because my opinion on mothers working stems from my feelings about the family.
Okay, down to brass tacks. Why do I think families are so important?
“You want to have how many kids?”
That’s the typical (and understandable) reaction I get from people when I tell them my wife and I would like to have 7 kids (or more, if we can). I admit, it is a lot of kids. And, with two kids now, I can’t fathom handling five more. Not to mention how expensive it is to raise kids.
Additionally, some people think the world is overcrowded and that bringing lots of kids into it is irresponsible. There are two problems with that:
- The purpose of the Earth is to give God’s children a place to go through the mortal experience. The statement above counteracts that purpose.
- The fact is, the Earth is not overcrowded. There are more than enough resources to go around, if they’re used and distributed efficiently. Did you know only 7% of the land in the US is developed?
And there are a number of reasons why we feel comfortable with having a big family.
- Image by Getty Images via @daylife
“‘Mothers don’t do that to mothers,’ Smart told the woman accused of kidnapping her daughter, Elizabeth Smart. ‘Mothers don’t do that to children.’”
Awesome!
