Yesterday Nate had me do a photo-shoot at the mall again. He gives away free CD's with the person's photographs on them, the only catch is they have to come to his office to pick them up. I took hundreds of pictures of children and parents in their costumes. I have to say theme's are the best, I loved seeing whole families dressed as one theme, my all time favorite was a sailor, fish, lobster, and a captain. I wish I could post my favorites, but I can't. There were some super cute people.
Out of the hundred plus people I photographed, there is one person whose image is permanently burned in my mind. I took a picture of a young lady and her daughter. She was too skinny, her skin was grey, and she wore stilettos and a barely-covering-her dress. Her baby was happy and beautiful and dressed in a cute, modest, Tangled costume. The mother was such a starch contrast to the baby she held in her arms. She looked weighed down by drugs and immorality. She looked like she was one overdose away from loosing her baby, a baby she appeared to love. I don't know why but she tugged at my mother-heart-strings. I just wanted to take her and give her a better life and show her a better way, not just for her sake but for the baby in her arms too. Life can be so beautiful and it can be so tragic.
I think that there is a hard cycle with young ladies and once they get wrapped up in that cycle it is hard to escape. The cycle begins and ends with VIRTUE. It is a big word and so important. When virtue is taken from you or you give it away without regard or reverence for it, ultimately it will lead to lose of self-worth. The lose of worth often leads to drugs. It is tragic.
I want to yell from the roof tops to all young people everywhere. I want to exclaim it so the hearer will hear, "Protect your virtue, do all that is humanly possible to protect it." Don't let the world tell you it doesn't matter. It matters, more than you can know. You won't be able to count it's price till you are my age or beyond. When you are young, it won't feel like you will ever be my age. I am nearly forty. (How did that happen?) I know this to be true, all that I am and all joy that I have in this life is due to choosing virtue. With that said, if virtue is lost the Atonement of Jesus Christ can bring it back. I know if that young lady would have the courage to believe my words. She could be made pure and begin again and find the same joy I posses. This was my testimony today. I know the voice of the world is loud but we as mother's must raise a stronger, louder, voice that virtue matters. It matters.
Mothers are powerful.
Another thought, on why virtue and motherhood is so important, has been running through my mind by Melvin J. Ballard.
"There is a passage in our Scriptures which we as Latter-Day Saints accept as divine: 'This is the glory of God-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man' (Moses 1:39) Likewise we could say that his is the glory of men and women--to bring to pass the mortality of the sons and daughters of God, to give earth-life to the waiting children of our Father.... The greatest mission of women is to give life, earth-life, through honorable marriage, to the waiting spirits, our Father's spirit children who anxiously desire to come to dwell here in this mortal state.
Have a happy Sabbath.
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