In a recent Facebook post, President Dallin H. Oaks answered a question he was recently asked and that is constantly on the minds of many women as they try to follow prophetic counsel and live a fulfilling, balanced life.
Here's the question and Elder Oaks's response:
"Recently I was aked the following question: 'The Church's current emphasis on women receiving education is causing me a great deal of confusion. Are we as women in the Church not expected to have both children and a career?'
"I'd like to say that the contest is not between a family and a career. And it's not between a family or education. Women can have both. The question is timing in the individual circumstances. I can illustrate that with the case of my own mother.
"This picture was taken about two years after my father died (I'm the boy in the back). My mother was left a widow to raise these three children. She never remarried. And she fortunately had a college degree. In her circumstance, that happened because though she and my father met three years before they were married, they were too poor to marry. She kept on with her education, and he went away to school. Three years went by before they married. Her degree was a blessing of the Lord to support this family when her husband died. In the case of my own family, I'm glad that my mother had both an education and a family.
"In other individual circumstances, it may work out differently. But in the timing of our individual lives, we don't have to choose one or another. The timing is what we have to choose, and we seek the inspiration of the Lord and the teachings of His servants in doing that."