Mother's Day Talk

   James E. Talmage said, "The world's greatest champion of woman and womanhood is Jesus the Christ."

There was a time a few years ago that I listened to the world and it told me that I was very irresponsible. I was a stay at home mom who was not out in the world contributing to society. I had three children at the time and that is way too many for the tax bracket we were in. Plus, they were each a year apart which apparently deprives them of a healthy childhood. This suffocated me with the feeling of being ashamed of who I was and what I did day in and day out as a mother.  It didn't take long for me to slip into a deep dark depression and I felt worthless. Fortunately, the Lord knew of my quiet struggle and he worked in a mysterious way. I was given the opportunity to attend a retreat in Salt Lake that is just for women.  In this retreat I rediscovered who I was and realized where my feelings of being ashamed came from. They came from the World. 

I NOW know that the world is wrong. The work women do in the home is vital to our future society. It is the work of the Savoir. Womanhood is a noble calling of the Lord and I will never again be ashamed of it. 

Womanhood is the work of the Savior.

I am so grateful for my Beautiful Savior, Jesus Christ. He is our perfect example in all things.

When we look at Him and we think about all the callings in the church, which calling do you think comes the closest to Christ's ministry on the earth?

Have you ever pondered the possibility that it could be womanhood?

Let's explore that possibility......

Matthew 14:14

14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

This sounds like a mother to me. This is why Mothers stay up all night with the sick child, because they are moved with compassion toward them. Often a Noble woman will care for the sick to the expense of her own quick recovery of the same illness. And also, consider how many female nurses there are in the world today.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

"In the 1950s my mother survived radical cancer surgery, which was followed by dozens of painful radiation treatments. She recalls that her mother taught her something during that time that has helped her ever since:

“I was so sick and weak, and I said to her one day, ‘Oh, Mother, I can’t stand having 16 more of those treatments.’

“She said, ‘Can you go today?’

“‘Yes.’ I siad

“‘Well, honey, that’s all you have to do today.’ she said.

“It has helped me many times when I remember to take one day or one thing at a time."

Elder Christofferson's Grandmother helped to heal her sick daughter by giving her words of encouragement to endure just one day at a time.

mark 8:1-3

 1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,

 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:

 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way.....

Doesn't this passage remind you of women in your life who is worried about you not having something to eating? My grandmother is always trying to feed me when I come to visit her. She has compassion for me and doesn't want me to leave her home hungry.

Throughout the scripters Jesus is always feeding people. 

During the Great Depression, lots of men traveled across the United States on trains looking for jobs. President Monson’s home was near the train tracks. Sometimes men would get off the train and knock on the back door of the Monsons’ home to ask for food. President Monson’s mother would always give them something to eat. She would also send her son to take a plate of hot food to a poor neighbor.

Just as Jesus was always found feeding the people and the apostles, it is the Noble woman who shows her love for the family with a well prepared meal.

 

 

Matthew 9:22

22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole....

Just as Jesus comforted those in need, it is the Noble woman who's nature it is to nurture.

Among the most important roles of a mother is the call to nurture, Elder Ballard says. “A mother’s nurturing love arouses in children, from their earliest days on earth, an awakening of the memories of love and goodness they experienced in their pre-mortal existence,” he declares.  “Because our mothers love us, we learn, or more accurately remember, that God also loves us.”

Matthew 19:14

14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Just as Jesus loved the little children and bid them to come unto him, it is the Noble woman who desires to have children.

 The Gift
Her little arms reach out to me 
When I walk in the room
This special little spirit, yes
This child of my womb

The trusting smile she gives to me
While gazing in my eyes
It causes me to feel as though
I've won the greatest prize

The dimple from her Daddy flashes
In her rosy cheek
The love I feel inside for her
So strong I cannot speak

I hold her close and kiss her brow
And whisper of my love
I say a prayer of gratefulness
And send it up above

Her Mother? What could I have done
To earn this gift, this right?
I'm still not sure, but I'll thank God
Each morning and each night

John 7:14

14 ¶Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

Just as Jesus taught the people, it is often a Noble woman teaching them  at home, in the primary, or in the class room.

PRESIDENT DIETER F. UCHTDORF

During the cold winter of 1944, my mother decided to flee to Germany, where her parents were living. She bundled us up and somehow managed to get us on one of the last refugee trains heading west. Traveling during that time was dangerous. Everywhere we went, the sound of explosions, the stressed faces, and ever-present hunger reminded us that we were in a war zone.

Along the way the train stopped occasionally to get supplies. One night during one of these stops, my mother hurried out of the train to search for some food for her four children. When she returned, to her great horror, the train and her children were gone!

She was weighed down with worry; desperate prayers filled her heart. She frantically searched the large and dark train station, urgently crisscrossing the numerous tracks while hoping against hope that the train had not already departed.

Perhaps I will never know all that went through my mother’s heart and mind on that black night as she searched through a grim railroad station for her lost children. That she was terrified, I have no doubt. I am certain it crossed her mind that if she did not find this train, she might never see her children again. I know with certainty: her faith overcame her fear, and her hope overcame her despair. She was not a woman who would sit and bemoan tragedy. She moved. She put her faith and hope into action.

And so she ran from track to track and from train to train until she finally found our train. It had been moved to a remote area of the station. There, at last, she found her children again.

President Uckdorf's mother taught her children through her example to put their faith and hope into action.

John 13:4 and 5

4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

 5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to ^awash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

Just as Jesus washed the apostles feet, it is a Noble woman who washes the dishes, laundry, and even the children.

HENRY B. EYRING

There was a woman—an older, very humble convert to the Church. She was an immigrant who spoke with a heavy Norwegian accent. She was the only member of the Church in her family and the only member of the Church in the city in which she lived.

Through my father, who was the branch president, the Lord called her as the president of the branch Relief Society. She had no handbook to tell her what to do. No other member of the Church lived near her. She only knew that the Lord cared for those in need and the few words in the motto of the Relief Society: “Charity never faileth.”

It was in the depths of what we now call the Great Depression. Thousands were out of work and homeless. So, feeling she had her errand from the Lord, she asked her neighbors for old clothes. She washed the clothes, pressed them, and put them in cardboard boxes on her back porch. When men without money needed clothes and asked her neighbors for help, they would say, “Go to the house down the street. There is a Mormon lady living there who will give you what you need.”

The Lord did not run the city, but He changed a part of it for the better. He called one tiny woman—alone—who trusted Him enough to find out what He wanted her to do and then did it. Because of her trust in the Lord, she was able to help in that city hundreds of Heavenly Father’s children in need.

2 Nehi 2:7

 7 Behold, he offereth himself a ^asacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law....

Just as Jesus sacrificed himself, the Noble woman also sacrifices her time, her sleep,  her sanity, and much more for the  family.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

For most followers of Christ, our sacrifices involve what we can do on a day-to-day basis in our ordinary personal lives. In that experience I know of no group whose members make more sacrifices than Latter-day Saints. Their sacrifices—your sacrifices, my brothers and sisters—stand in contrast to the familiar worldly quests for personal fulfillment.

Perhaps the most familiar and most important examples of unselfish service and sacrifice are performed in our families. Mothers devote themselves to the bearing and nurturing of their children. Husbands give themselves to supporting their wives and children. The sacrifices involved in the service to our families are too numerous to mention and too familiar to need mention.

It is a noble calling

During Jesus Christ's ministry on the earth in Galilee he attended a wedding in Cana were his mother was in charge of the feast.  On finding that they were out of wine, she informed Jesus to which he responded:

  "Woman, what have I to do with thee?"

In "The Life of Christ" written by  Farrar where we read:

 The words at first sound harsh, and almost repellent in their roughness and brevity; but that is the fault partly of our version, partly of our associations. He does not call her "mother," because, in circumstances such as these, she was His mother no longer; but the address "Woman" ( The hebrew word "Gúnai") was so respectful that it might be, and was, addressed to the queenliest, and so gentle that it might be, and was, addressed at the tenderest moments to the most fondly loved.

Jesus used this honorary title "woman" in a general way to women throughout his minsistry.

The world today does not see womanhood In the same way as Jesus Christ does, and this is satin's design. Throughout the centuries we have been thought of as the spoils of war, the weaker and lesser sex, and even as property until now, in these days, where even woman think that their calling is degrading.

 I testify unto you that this is not true. It is a noble calling to be a woman and to Follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Especially the part where we stand on the watch tower, watching over Heavenly Fathers children. They are his children and He has entrusted  them into our hands. They are the future generation that will be the leaders of this world.  These special children have been saved for the last days and they all ready have the embers of faith burning inside of them. It is our job to fan their embers into a flame, and then add a log every once in a while. It is our sacred calling as Women.

President Uchtdorf,:

 “To the women within the sound of my voice who dearly want to be mothers and are not, I say through your tears and mine on that subject, God will yet, in days that lie somewhere ahead, bring ‘hope to [the] desolate heart.’” Elder Holland promises “ultimately ‘no blessing shall be withheld’ from the faithful, even if those blessings do not come immediately.  In the meantime we rejoice that the call to nurture is not limited to our own flesh and blood.”

 Let me tell you that this is true, Because I need all the help I can get . I need my mother to help me, I need the women at school who teach them to help me, I need the women in church who teach them to help me, and I need the women in my neighborhood to help me.  These are the last days, and there are many pit falls set up for our children. It will take us all.

I will not be ashamed.

In the Book of Mormon when Jesus came to the American people, he asked for the children to come to him.  In 3rd Nephi Chapter 17:19-24 it reads:

 19 And it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.

 20 And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And ^anow behold, my joy is full.

 21 And when he had said these words, he ^awept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and ^bblessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

 22 And when he had done this he wept again;

 23 And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones.

 24 And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and ^aencircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.

 Sisters, we are the angels sent by Heavenly Father to bless and encircle the children with the fire of faith in these last days. It is a noble calling to be a woman and we should not listen to the world and be ashamed of it.

In closing, I found the perfect poem that I would like to read for my mother....

My Mother´s Garden

My Mother kept a garden,
a garden of the heart,
She planted all the good things
that gave my life it's start.

She turned me to the sunshine
and encouraged me to dream,
Fostering and nurturing
the seeds of self-esteem...

And when the winds and rain came,
she protected me enough--
But not too much because she knew
I'd need to stand up strong and tough.

Her constant good example
always taught me right from wrong--
Markers for my pathway
that will last a lifetime long.

I am my Mother's garden.
I am her legacy-
And I hope today she feels the love
reflected back from me

In the Name of Jesus Christ Amen.....