Anyway, I've added a photo. It's my favorite photo of me and my mom. I think I was about 3 or 4 years old. You can see one of my younger sisters is with us. My other two sisters weren't yet twinkling in my parents' eyes. I don't know why I was in bed with my mom, but it certainly looks like I had had a bad dream and needed my mom. I still have bad dreams and there are times when I still need my mom. I'm fortunate I still have her around. My mom lost her mom when she was only 24. I didn't get to know my grandma very well, but I have her chair. (That's another story.)
My mom looks like an angel in this picture. She looks like there's nothing else in the world she'd rather be doing than have her girls in bed with her and hugging one who just had a bad dream. I didn't start writing today to talk about how amazing my mom is and I think she's pretty amazing. I started writing because moms are pretty amazing. All moms.
I'm sure you've heard the saying "Any man can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a dad." Well something similar can be said for women. It's just biology that makes one a mother, but it's the actions once pregnancy occurs that determines a mom or not.
I've experienced all kinds of moms. I have a friend who's a single mom. I was a single mom for a while. I have a friend who's a mother of SEVEN! And she loves EVERY one of her babies. She LOVES being a mom. I have friends with one kid, two kids and more, step-kids, and all kinds of crazy blended families. In fact, I'm part of a crazy blended family. And all these moms are amazing women. They're stretched to the limits of their patience. They're stretched to the limits of sleep deprivation. They're stretched to the limits period.
Yes, I'm a mom and I'm writing this, but I, by no means, think I'm an amazing mom. I have three children from two former husbands, plus two step-sons from a third husband. I even have a former step-son whom I love very much, but I'm not amazing. I yell too much. I lose my patience. I don't read to my girls at night like I should. I hate to cook so dinner is a struggle almost every night and I don't even have children home every night since I share custody of my girls; my son has graduated and moved out; and my step-sons all live with their mothers.
So why am I writing this? I'm writing this to tell you moms have so much power. Don't get me wrong, we feel powerless pretty often, but it's just frustration, aggravation and sleep deprivation. But we have so much power. We're the first person our children ever hear. They hear us from the inside out. They know our heartbeat. They know our breath sounds. (Even when there's a little knee or foot in the ribcage.) We're the first person they smell. The first person they bond with. We moms become their everything, their cheerleader, their teacher, their support.
The foundation of everything a child has the opportunity to know comes first from their mom. Take a look at Robert Fulghum's "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten". Think of all the things he talks about from "Share everything." to "- the biggest word of all - LOOK." Moms teach those things. Read it. It's all in there. The funniest thing is as we grow up and go out into the world we seem to stop listening to our moms. And why is that? Mostly, we think we know better from about 12 or 13 years old until we've wizened up around 30. That's a lot of years to think you know better.
There are those strange anomalies of children out there that really think their mom is awesome and they love her, honor her, and for Heaven's sake, LISTEN to her well into their 20s. Those anomalies seem to have things figured out. I have names of a couple... Lanie and Tiernan. Great job ladies! Your moms love you and know what she's talking about. And I promise it's always meant with love.
I actually told my son on Saturday that everything I ever did for him was out of love and wanting the absolute best for him. I'm proud of him. He's still growing up, but he's doing pretty well. It's not all my doing, but I'd like to think I have a lot to do with it. He won't admit it for another 10 years or so, but I know it's in there somewhere.
Being a mom is a sacred calling. It is. We chose it before we came to earth. Not all moms are biological moms. In fact, one of the sweetest people I know wasn't able to have children, but she's an amazing mom to two very sweet little boys. They are so lucky to have her. But it is a sacred calling. Moms have been entrusted with the hearts and spirits of Heavenly Father's children as they start out on this journey and it is, literally, our God given responsibility to be the first and best example of charity, love, faith, patience, kindness, humility, sacrifice, service, good, truth, righteousness, honesty, fairness, and compassion. See 1 Corinthians 13 for any questions. You can find similar thoughts written in The Book of Mormon, Moroni 7:44-47.
He never said it would be easy. He only said it would be worth it.
Moms, all you moms out there, is it worth it?
I know it is.
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