In the Meantime

Motherhood, is, in fact, part of my life--or can be--on a regular basis. The latent qualities need to be stirred and utilized and strengthened and nurtured, like a seed in rich soil. The seed is indeed good, and will bear fruit, if given the opportunity. And, opportunity abounds for nurturing, which Julie B. Beck described as "to help to make grow." Growing a friendship, growing a testimony, growing greater understanding, intelligence, and intuition.

Sheri Dew gave a monumental address on the subject of the eternal nature of womanhood and motherhood, as our divine endowment. With great power she taught:

Eve set the pattern. In addition to bearing children, she mothered all of mankind when she made the most courageous decision any woman has ever made and with Adam opened the way for us to progress. She set an example of womanhood for men to respect and women to follow, modeling the characteristics with which we as women have been endowed: heroic faith, a keen sensitivity to the Spirit, an abhorrence of evil, and complete selflessness.

As daughters of our Heavenly Father, and as daughters of Eve, we are all mothers and we have always been mothers.

We just can’t let the Lord down. And if the day comes when we are the only women on earth who find nobility and divinity in motherhood, so be it. For mother is the word that will define a righteous woman made perfect in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, a woman who has qualified for eternal increase in posterity, wisdom, joy, and influence.

Particular Delight

Recently, I rediscovered this picture (which I LOVE) and felt compelled to include it here with some comments. From left to right are my brothers Jared and Aaron, mom, and me, probably taken on a Sunday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.

First of all, I wish I could step back in time and with outstretched hand clutching a shiny coin ask mom shyly, "A penny for your thoughts?" I love the whimsy, the mystery, the secret thought, the tranquil and confident expression on her face. What was she thinking? What did her quiet heart hold in that moment, which seemed so captivating as to distract her view from the obvious task at hand? I like to think that her little reverie had everything to do with us and the joy of womanhood and motherhood. She seems so instinctively comfortable in securing Aaron's pacifier and holding Jared close. It is the natural outward expression of her divine, innate nurturing nature. The outward expression has been manifest in a thousand, no, a hundred thousand moments; moments as simple as wiping strawberry jam from pudgy cheeks, and as complex as weeping with and feeling for my personal sorrows.

Perhaps all these things have sunk in deeper because it is spring and a time or rebirth and renewal and the maternal instinct is seen by large and small, flora and fauna. Mothers of all kinds are nesting and prepping and cultivating a bit of sanctuary for their new arrivals. Perhaps it came from feeling this year on Mother's Day a heightened gratitude for my own mother. And, as a corollary to that, my own desires to embark on that high road of purpose and fulfillment.

I was talking to mom recently and she commented, sort of unexpectedly, "Being your mother has been my particular delight." And it is with particular delight that I look ahead with that same countenance filled with whimsy, mystery, and confidence to the fullest expression of femininity--motherhood.