Mother's Day

This morning for Mother’s day breakfast we had chocolate crepes with fresh strawberries, kiwi, banana, and vanilla yogurt.  Callan and Dad made little notes for mom and posted them around the house.  When Dad fails to wax poetic, he tends to wax cheesy, and this morning was no exception.  On the fridge was a note that said, “Thanks for always keeping your cool,” and on the sink was another that read, ‘Without you we’d sink for sure!’  On the bathroom mirror was one that read, ‘You’re looking at a great mom,’ and my personal favorite, on the inside of the toilet room door, ‘If you were a poker hand, you’d be a royal flush.’  We finished breakfast at 8:30, and then Mom put some finishing touches on her talk for church, and hopped in the shower while Dad whipped out a chocolate cream pie for the potluck dinner after church.

Melissa spoke on Motherhood in Sacrament meeting and did a great job.  She referred to Sherri Dew’s conference talk from October 2001 about the motherly role of all women.  She talked about the divine role of women in nurturing not only their own children, but all young people, and about the special gifts and traits women have been blessed with that make them such able care givers.  She bore testimony about the powerful example of her own mother and how with Callan, she is realizing how much the good example of caring women has influenced her own parenting abilities.  

She stood at the pulpit with her English scriptures and gave her talk, and I stood next to her with my Japanese scriptures and translated for her. It is unifying to share opportunities like this, and provides the added challenge of trying to internalize what Melissa is trying to say well enough to reproduce it reasonably approximate Japanese.

One thing that caught my attention is that, as Melissa pointed out in her talk, Eve was called the ‘Mother of all living’ before she had children.  Mothering is a divinely given trait, and all woman possess it. She also shared Doctrine and Covenants 138:56 about each of us getting our first lessons for mortality in the pre existence, and commented that surely, among the noble and great ones were mothers and motherly women whose influence for good would be so necessary in this world.  

Whether we had a kind and supportive mother, an absentee mother, or no mother at all, each of us has been affected by the positive nurturing of godly, mothering women.  My own home was built upon, framed by, roofed with, and warmed through the selfless work of my dedicated mother.  I have heard her voice regrets, common to mothers who wish so much for their children and forget that each of us is human and must make decisions for ourselves, but I know that each us, her seven children, owe all that is good in our lives to her example, her faith, and her dedication.  

As I look forward to the motherly influences that my children and I will rely upon throughout our life, I am grateful to be married to Melissa, and to already be feeling the effects of generations of gentle mothering done by mothers who used their god given talents to bless the lives of their children.  My children and grandchildren and their children will for years to come feel the power of the steady, loving, gentle mothering that I see in my home every day.  Somewhere in the distant future, a young man is lying beside his small child, singing a gentle lullaby as the sun sinks into the horizon, and in the soothing sway of the melody, that small child feels the grace of generations of sweet mothers, and that child wonders, as he looks at the fuzzy chin of his father, why he should be so lucky.