To single parents: do not feel like second class citizens in the church even though you do not have an ideal family situation.
In the absence of fathers, are you providing examples worthy of emulation to young men being raised by single mothers?
I don’t mean to prejudge people but he may be speaking about single parenting because that is even more of an epidemic in the UK than it is here or in many other places where the church is well established.
Although you may at times have asked, why me? it is through the hardships of life that we grow toward godhood as our character is shaped in the crucible of affliction, as the events of life take place while God respects the agency of man. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell commented, we cannot do all the sums or make it all add up because “we do not have all the numbers.”
I wonder how Emily felt about this. Was she comforted or disappointed that this applied to her?
Please never feel that you are in some kind of second-tier subcategory of Church membership, somehow less entitled to the Lord’s blessings than others. In the kingdom of God there are no second-class citizens.
A divorced single mother of seven children ranging in age from 7 to 16 indicates a woman who once had children ranging in age from newborn to 9—like us now.
“I remember looking through tears toward the sky, and I said, ‘Dear Father, I just can’t do it tonight. I’m too tired. I can’t face it. I can’t go home and take care of all those children alone. Could I just come to You and stay with You for just one night? …’
“I didn’t really hear the words of reply, but I heard them in my mind. The answer was: ‘No, little one, you can’t come to me now. … But I can come to you.’”
You have discovered that when we extend lines of hopeful credit to those whose life accounts seem empty, our own coffers of consolation are enriched and made full; our cup truly “runneth over.”
Members and leaders, is there more that you could do to support single-parent families without passing judgment or casting aspersions? Might you mentor young people in these families, especially providing for young men examples of what good men do and how good men live? In the absence of fathers, are you providing role models worthy of emulation?
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