The Importance of Older Women Being Keepers at Home

One of the most important ways we teach young people the scriptures is not by "do as I say" but by being an example of "do as I do".  It is hard for a young woman to desire a home keeper's life when all the older women she knows have careers.  It is important for the older women to be keepers at home not only to be in obedience to the scriptures but to be an example to the younger women.

A young bride who desires to be a keeper at home will soon find that life to be a lonely one especially when her husband leaves for work and she is either left alone or is alone with a young child.  It is during this period that she needs the nurturing and teaching of an older woman to guide her in the caring of her new family and the responsibilities of running a new home.  How are the older women going to be an example and guide if they are all at work?

This is a special function of the older women in the church designed to be a spiritual blessing to both the young and old.  Why should each new generation of women relearn every hard lesson of child rearing and loving a husband when God has provided for the them the wisdom of the older women?  When a young woman is first married ordinarily there is a period of months before the advent of child rearing when she may be assisted, by the love and experience of an older woman in the church, through the transition from being single to being a newly wed and a mother.

Elder James Taylor