Prayerfully study these scriptures and resources. What do you feel will help the young women prepare to become a wife and mother?

Proverbs 31:10–31; Alma 56:47–48; Moroni 7:45–46; D&C 88:123–25 (Characteristics of righteous women)

D&C 88:78–80, 118; 90:15 (Seek learning)

L. Whitney Clayton, “Marriage: Watch and Learn,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013

M. Russell Ballard, “Mothers and Daughters,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 18–21; see also the video “Mothers and Daughters”

Mary N. Cook, “Seek Learning: You Have a Work to Do,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2012, 120–22

“Education,” For the Strength of Youth (2011), 9–10

Video: “Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God”

Video: “Loving God’s Children”

Choose from these ideas or think of your own to introduce this week’s lesson:

• Show one of the videos suggested in this outline. Ask the young women, “What are you doing to prepare to become a righteous wife and mother?”
• Repeat the Young Women theme together. Encourage a few young women to share what the phrase “strengthen home and family” means to them. 

Each of the activities below can help the young women prepare to be righteous wives and mothers. Following the guidance of the Holy Ghost, select one or more that will work best for your class:

• Assign each young woman a few verses to read from some of the scriptures suggested in this outline. Invite each young woman to draw a picture or symbol or write a brief sentence representing the characteristics of a righteous wife and mother found in her assigned verses. Share the pictures or sentences with the class, and discuss together how a young woman can acquire these characteristics. Ask the young women to share examples of mothers like those described in Proverbs. How are the families of these mothers blessed? Why is a “virtuous woman” so valuable to the Lord (see Proverbs 31:10)?
• Assign each young woman to read one of the five principles of strong marriages that Elder L. Whitney Clayton describes in his talk “Marriage: Watch and Learn,” or watch one or more of the videos suggested in this outline. What examples of strong marriages and righteous mothers have the young women seen? What else have they observed in strong couples that they would like to emulate? What do the young women feel they can do to live these principles now?
• Ask the young women to write on the board a list of righteous women in the scriptures (for example, Ruth, Esther, Eve, Hannah, Emma Smith, and so on). Invite them to choose one woman from the list and read about her in the scriptures (using the Topical Guide or Bible Dictionary). Encourage the young women to share what virtuous traits they recognize and admire in these women and how these traits could help them prepare to be a righteous wife and mother.
• Invite the young women to read Elder M. Russell Ballard’s suggestions to young women for improving their relationship with their mothers (paragraphs 8–10 of “Mothers and Daughters”), or show the video “Mothers and Daughters.” Ask the young women to write their thoughts about things they admire about their mothers or qualities their mothers have that they would like to emulate as they prepare to become mothers themselves. Invite a few of them to share what they wrote. If possible, invite the mothers of the young women to participate in this discussion.
• Ask a young woman to read aloud “Education” from For the Strength of Youth or excerpts from Sister Mary N. Cook’s talk “Seek Learning: You Have a Work to Do.” Ask the class to listen for ways that obtaining an education can bless their future marriage and family. Allow them to share any examples of women they know whose education and training bless their families. Invite them to make short-term and long-term goals for gaining an education.

Ask the young women to share what they learned today. Do they understand how to prepare for their future roles as wives and mothers? What feelings or impressions do they have? Do they have any additional questions? Would it be helpful to spend more time on this doctrine?

Invite the young women to consider how they will live by what they have learned today. For example, they could:

• Complete any of the following from Personal Progress: Divine Nature value project, Individual Worth value experience 4, Choice and Accountability value experience 7, Good Works value experience 2.
• Interview a woman about the responsibilities, challenges, and blessings of being a wife or mother. Ask what skills and attributes she finds most essential. Record any thoughts or feelings in a journal.

You might want to plan with the young women a Mutual activity that reinforces what they learned in class. For example, they could learn and practice homemaking skills.