Happy Mother's Day

I wanted to write a nice, thoughtful Mother's Day post. Maybe something about my mom. Maybe something about being Lucy's mom. I certainly have thoughts on both of those subjects. But I've spent all of my writing time reading! Reading mostly things that I have read before. Things that have touched me. Things about motherhood.

Like Sheri Dew's Are We Not All Mothers?

I remember listening to Sheri's address as an unmarried college student. A time when my life was all about academics and accomplishment. A time when motherhood was hoped for but seemed very futuristic. And I remember how powerfully her words hit me.

While we tend to equate motherhood solely with maternity, in the Lord’s language, the word mother has layers of meaning. Of all the words they could have chosen to define her role and her essence, both God the Father and Adam called Eve “the mother of all living”—and they did so before she ever bore a child.

On days when stereotypical maternity feels mundane, I try to remember those words. I try to remember that tending to hurt knees or steaming pots, wiping sticky counters or tear stained cheeks is only part of mothering. The other part revolves so much around who I am as a daughter of God. It revolves around the thoughts I think, the words I speak, the attitude I exude. It revolves around the influence I have on other individuals, primarily - but not exclusively - my husband and daughter.

I seem to recall several sources affirming that influence is the essence of motherhood. And that feels right to me.

Influence: the capacity or power of persons...to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.

It seems that as women, we innately desire to be influential. Perhaps that desire is what drives more and more women to pursue dynamic professional careers. Certainly women are capable of great influence in political, social, and economic arenas.

But on this topic, let me defer to a dear and most exemplary friend. A few months ago this friend wrote a post called CAREER: MOM. CHECK YES OR NO.

Autumn's perspective regarding her various career opportunities remains a refreshing reminder to me that nothing, really, is so eternally influential as motherhood.

Certainly, there is "nobility and divinity in motherhood."
The world won't tell you this," Sis Dew affirms, "but the spirit will."

I've felt that confirmation. I felt it last week when I spent two blissful days at my own mother's house. As we sewed and cooked and talked together I was overwhelmed with the realization that so much of who I am is because of who my mother was when I lived in her home. And I was overwhelmed with the realization that Lucy will be similarly impacted by me.

Pressure? yeah.
But also purpose.
Weighty, ennobling purpose.
Urgent purpose.

I have long loved Elder Ashton's words, and I love them perhaps most of all in the context of motherhood:

"There is an urgency for those of us who have this knowledge of [Christ's] divinity to act upon it without hesitation or delay...The time is now."

And whereas the phrase, "just a minute!" is a prominent part of my mothering vocabulary, I need a Mother's Day reminder that "The time is now."

Because if three years can pass in the blink of an eye, so can thirteen.