Woman as Heart

[Connie]

A few LDS church leaders have stated in recent years that the woman is the "heart of the home" or "heart of the family." What does that mean to you? What does it mean to be the heart?

[NeedleinA]

1 hour ago, Connie said:

What does that mean to you? What does it mean to be the heart?

Without getting too deep and writing a novel. Speaking as a son to my mother and husband to my wife, I always see the "heart" as the person that radiates the most selfless love, care, empathy, concern for their family, especially if there are children involved. 

1. Which parent do our kids want when it is time for bed? Mom. Dad simply puts them to bed. Mom gives endless hugs and sings songs to them.
2. Which parent do our kids want when they get hurt? Mom. Dad tells them to suck it up. Mom kisses the hurt spot, gets out the Neosporin and band-aids. Then hugs them and sings them a song
3. Which parent do you go to when you are trouble? Mom. Dad is going to give you your punishment. Mom is going to repeat all the steps from item #2.

I realize in many households, roles might be reversed, so this is simply a reflection of what I have seen growing up and now married to a super loving wife. 

[Guest]

Oh boy. My husband is a better mom than I am.

I am softer in many things than he tends to be, though. He is definitely the protector and provider, and I nurture the heck out of the kids, but I'm also the disciplinarian most of the time, out of necessity. I tend to rule with a softer touch than he does when he's around... which really just means he's better at follow-through and I'm a big wimp sometimes. 

[David13]

I'd say a big wimp when it comes to discipline is a woman with a lot (or too much) heart.

Believe me the kids need to learn discipline.

I think as a general rule, women tend to think with their heart, rather than their head.  I understand not always, nor all men and women, just more than half.

dc

[estradling75]

In my experience... where ever my wife chooses to be...  that is where my home is... that is where my kids home is.

I might be providing the means for the house or whatever physical structure she might be living in, but she is the one that turns it into a home.

 

[CV75]

18 hours ago, Connie said:

A few LDS church leaders have stated in recent years that the woman is the "heart of the home" or "heart of the family." What does that mean to you? What does it mean to be the heart?

Without getting into the various ways a family can be structured, I think “heart” is used in this kind of verbal expression to convey “the essential or most vital part of something,” and “home” to mean “the social unit formed by a family living together.”

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heart

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/home

No family can exist without a woman bearing a child, so I suppose that is the basis for saying she is the heart of the home, and the concept builds or extends from there according to her qualities, introducing the Lord into the home, and being one with a husband who contributes his own qualities into the home. Together the three become the heart of the home, but the initial foundation seems to begin with the woman.

From what I’ve seen, a man brings a woman into his house and it becomes a home; a woman brings a man into her house but it is already a home.

[LeSellers]

1 hour ago, CV75 said:

No family can exist without a woman bearing a child

Please don't imagine this to be true. Our daughter-in-law has not born a child, but has three by adoption. And our son and his wife and their children are very much a family.

Lehi

[CV75]

19 minutes ago, LeSellers said:

Please don't imagine this to be true. Our daughter-in-law has not born a child, but has three by adoption. And our son and his wife and their children are very much a family.

Lehi

I understand. That is why I prefaced my remarks with, " Without getting into the various ways a family can be structured..."

Still, "No family can exist without a woman bearing a child..." because that is how the Lord set the pattern with Adam and Eve, That is how families -- of any kind --  started in our world, with Eve bearing children, and that is how I suppose it continues in exaltation, with the continuation of the seeds forever.

Now that we have "all the children" coming into the earth through Adam and Eve (but especially through Eve as the vessel), the women, as daughters of Eve, are still the heart of their homes, just as I'm sure your daughter-in-law is the heart of their home.

This is how I take the statements referred to in the first post.

[Guest]

I notice a pattern among singles that may be helpful in understanding the differences.  Single Men vs. Single Women:  

When you come home from work and take care of all the mundane tasks, are you content with just watching TV or playing online games?  
Every night?

Men who live on their own really have no life.  
Women who live on their own are still alive.  
Men who retire often die within a few months of retirement.
Women retire and continue living for many years.

Women are life.

It is interesting to note that the Hebrew name "Chaya" means "living" or "life" or "animal".  While there is a male version of the name (I believe Chiam?) such was not given to Adam.  But Chaya is somehow connected to Eve.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Guest

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

 But Chaya is somehow connected to Eve.

Mother of all living.

 

I like your post, and I think it's true. Man should not be without woman. My husband would live happily as a hermit. I could literally have some event to go to every night this week, but I need to be with my family more than I'm out, so I try to balance it. 

But, I need him to even me out, to help me see things from another (and often better) perspective, to protect and support me. I need his friendship and his priesthood, and the strengths he has that push me to overcome my weaknesses. Even though I love to go see music events, and visit family, and be with friends sometimes, I would be terribly lonely without him. Woman should not be without man. 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Eowyn said:

Mother of all living.

Not just that.  

As I understand it, Chaya is another version of the name "Eve".  This is like the book of "James" in the Bible is "Santiago" in Spanish.  They don't look anything like cognates, but they are considered equivalent names.

[Vort]

8 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Not just that.  

As I understand it, Chaya is another version of the name "Eve".  This is like the book of "James" in the Bible is "Santiago" in Spanish.  They don't look anything like cognates, but they are considered equivalent names.

The Hebrew name is Chava (חוה), with the initial "Ch-" pronounced as a gutteral -- more or less like the Spanish "j". "Eve" is the English pronunciation of the Latin name Eva, which is a transliteration of the Hebrew Chava. (Latin lacked any appropriate gutteral to use in place of the "Ch-", and in such situations they either used a hard "c" or a hard "g" sound or else just omitted the gutteral entirely.) So when Adam says her name is "Eve" because she is the mother of all living, there is a literal sense of that name actually meaning "life" that escapes our English-conditioned ear.

[Aish HaTorah]

I am neither a woman, nor am I LDS, but if I may, I would like to share my thoughts on this from my perspective.

The word in Hebrew for home, bayit, contains a yud between the letters that form the word bat (daughter). The yud is the very smallest of all the Hebrew letters.  It represents a small seed, and yet it occupies that all-important space within the bat, the daughter. This is an old Jewish saying, “Beito zu ishto,”, a man’s home is his wife. It is not simply that his wife represents the house, but that his literal home is housed within his wife.  This is on both a spiritual as well as an emotional level. A woman need not be in the home at all times.  In other words, a woman is allowed to work outside the home if necessity dictates.  Just as a house surrounds us the way our body surrounds us, the woman is the home as well as the heart.  The woman completes the home.  She sustains it as she sustains her husband and her children.  The home is her domain and she should be deeply respected in that regard.  Woman and men are considered separate, yet equal.  In the home, however, the woman has dominion.  Men who abuse their wives (or their daughters) are destroyers of the home.  They take away the sanctity of that precious space and are no longer welcome.

Women, too, have the sacred honor to light the candles of the Shabbat within the home.  Uttering those sacred words:

Blessed are you, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the light of the Shabbat.

 

 

Edited April 25, 2016 by Aish HaTorah

[Guest]

Chaya is an alternate form of Chava.  True story.  It is like saying Mary instead of Marie.  I like Chaya better because it is the name I gave my daughter.  But I spelled it differently.

Interesting name gaming: Kaia is the shortened version of the Norwegian Katarina.  Catarina is the Spanish form, and is the more common word used for ladybug (since the real Spanish word for the insect is considered a derogatory word in modern vernacular).  "Ladybug" is the nickname we gave our daughter.  COINCIDENCE???

Edited April 25, 2016 by Guest

[Aish HaTorah]

1 hour ago, Vort said:

The Hebrew name is Chava (חוה), with the initial "Ch-" pronounced as a gutteral -- more or less like the Spanish "j". "Eve" is the English pronunciation of the Latin name Eva, which is a transliteration of the Hebrew Chava. (Latin lacked any appropriate gutteral to use in place of the "Ch-", and in such situations they either used a hard "c" or a hard "g" sound or else just omitted the gutteral entirely.) So when Adam says her name is "Eve" because she is the mother of all living, there is a literal sense of that name actually meaning "life" that escapes our English-conditioned ear.

Chai!    Life!

Edited April 25, 2016 by Aish HaTorah

[Vort]

Just now, Aish HaTorah said:

Chai!    Life!

Like in Fiddler on the Roof: L'Chaim!

[Aish HaTorah]

1 minute ago, Vort said:

Like in Fiddler on the Roof: L'Chaim!

Exactly.  To Life.

[CV75]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

Not just that.  

As I understand it, Chaya is another version of the name "Eve".  This is like the book of "James" in the Bible is "Santiago" in Spanish.  They don't look anything like cognates, but they are considered equivalent names.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/chaya

Chaya

Hebrew name meaning "life." The name, Anglicized as Eve, is borne in the Bible by the first woman created by God, the "mother of all the living." Eve was the mother of three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth.

[Vort]

5 minutes ago, CV75 said:

Eve was the mother of three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth.

Eve was the mother of a whole lot more than three sons. Even non-LDS Bible readers should be able to figure out that a lack of specification is not a specification of lack. Or something like that. The point is, the fact that the Bible names only three of her children does not imply or even suggest that she had only three children. For heaven's sake, assuming the traditional model of Adam and Eve being the only human beings on the Earth, who (on Earth) would those sons marry?

EDIT: Not directed at you, CV, just making a general comment.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Vort

[CV75]

12 minutes ago, Vort said:

Like in Fiddler on the Roof: L'Chaim!

Of as commonly referred to in certain circles, "Fiddlah!" as in "Have you seen Fiddlah!" It's great!" And the led in the movie was played by an Israeli actor named Chiam Topol! He also played the Pope in another film LOL

[CV75]

22 minutes ago, Vort said:

Like in Fiddler on the Roof: L'Chaim!

Or as commonly referred to in certain circles, "Fiddlah!" as in "Have you seen Fiddlah!" It's great!" And the led in the movie was played by an Israeli actor named Chiam Topol! He also played the Pope in another film LOL

Edited April 25, 2016 by CV75

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Vort said:

a lack of specification is not a specification of lack.

I need to record that somewhere.  Ok.  Done!

[CV75]

3 minutes ago, Vort said:

Eve was the mother of a whole lot more than three sons. Even non-LDS Bible readers should be able to figure out that a lack of specification is not a specification of lack. Or something like that. The point is, the fact that the Bible names only three of her children does not imply or even suggest that she had only three children. For heaven's sake, assuming the traditional model of Adam and Eve being the only human beings on the Earth, who (on Earth) would those sons marry?

EDIT: Not directed at you, CV, just making a general comment.

LOL I almost took that part out of the quote for that very reason... can't find true doctrine on "Baby Names.com" anymore!

[Vort]

3 minutes ago, CV75 said:

an Israeli actor named Chiam Topol

Every time I hear his name, I think of the smoker's tooth polish.

 

 

[Aish HaTorah]

In addition, we should ask...

What is the source of a woman's strength?

The answer should be:  Their faith.

From the beginning of the foundation of the world, women have believed in a strong and caring G‑d. When men despaired (when have they not??), women believed and moved forward without complaint (well, for the most part).

Women, both in the bible as well as now, seem seldom to lose hope. They always believe that G‑d will come through. If not immediately, then soon. If not for them, then for their children and their husbands.

Faith is the foundation of our beliefs. If Torah and mitzvot are our building blocks, then faith is its cornerstone.  Women provide to us, in a way only they can, a loving foundation upon which we build our families; they are definitely the heart of the home.  They are a visible foundation in our lives.  They provide a strength of character and intellect in turmoil unsurpassed even by men.  They are there, lovingly, to pick up the pieces, to kiss our cuts and scrapes, to hold us, to listen, and to heal.  Without women, we would be lost in a world doomed to broken emotion.