Parenting: A Call to Find Our Best Selves

With all its joys, motherhood is one of the most rewarding and empowering roles of women. But sometimes, it’s also quite hard. Mothers around the world face various challenges in parenting, including our own True Mother. Unificationist Myrna Lapres, a certified family and relationship coach in California, is now offering guidance and generational healing for all young mothers in a special WFWP virtual program on March 29.

“I believe that being a parent and a grandparent allows us to re-parent ourselves as we grow in our ability to give and receive genuine, unconditional love,” says Lapres. “Connection in a relationship is key. Modeling the things that we want others to inherit is the best way to teach.”

Lapres has been an educator and administrator for more than 25 years. She is also an author of her self-published book, 7 Gifts to Give Your Child: Parenting That Will Touch Their Future (2021). However, Lapres says her passion is working with individuals and families to strengthen their relationships through learning better communication skills, developing authentic love for themselves, and exploring methods of healing.

“Parents will always be the most important source of information and values for their child,” says Lapres. “Parents support their children in learning to make good choices, taking responsibility, and learning from their mistakes. Through this connection and support, they develop a moral compass — an inner voice — that can guide them throughout their whole life.”

Today, there are some 85 million mothers in America — a six percent increase from a decade ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In the March 29 program, which is based on Lapres’ book, she outlines tools for planting seeds of happiness and well-being among our next generation.

“We don’t have to be perfect,” says Lapres, a grandmother and mother of three adult children. “But we can intentionally invest in this important relationship and create one which is peaceful and loving. I give individuals and parents support to discover the love and abilities that lie within ... Using empathetic phrases and guiding questions avoids arguments that shut down relationships. Giving choices shares the control and allows children to make better decisions, while mistakes are learning opportunities. All this helps us to raise resilient, successful, happy children.”

In the live online program, Lapres will share how to build a sense of belonging and connection at home; develop family responsibility and accountability; create opportunities for instilling wisdom and resilience in children; tap into self-awareness and improvement, and much more.

“The role of the mother in cultivating character and raising her children to have healthy, wholesome natures is the highest function of motherhood,” True Mother notably said in a 2002. “In fulfilling this role, mothers truly represent the heart of God.”

“I believe that the parent-child connection is the core relationship that rules the world,” says Lapres. “If it is strong and solid, we have healthy men and women. If it is broken and fragmented, we have a wounded world ... Parenting calls us to find our best selves.”

You can register here for the online WFWP Young Mothers program,“7 Gifts to Give Your Child,” which streams live March 29 from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST.