Yikes, guess what I had to speak in Sacrament Meeting Sunday! Here is my talk...
I want everyone to imagine that they are back at
their childhood home. It is early on Saturday morning and they are lying in
bed. Some might drift to memories of their sisters or brothers asleep next to
them. Some might recall hearing the birds chirp outside of their windows. My
memories take me to the sweet smell of chocolate cake baking in the oven. This
memory is my favorite childhood memory. I often think about this memory and I
always new after I got out of bed and headed to the kitchen I would see my mom
in her apron baking two chocolate cakes at a time. I knew that the chocolate
cakes were never for us. I did however get very good at sneaking some of the
chocolate frosting off of the corners of the cake. This memory sums my mother
up. Yes, she is as sweet as the chocolate cake, but more importantly she is
always thinking/doing/baking for others.
My most constant memory of my mother is her serving
others. One example of this is every
Saturday we would climb into my moms white Malibu car and drive to my Great Grandma
Stratton’s. Once there we would all pile out of the car and begin our duties.
My duty since I was the youngest, was to dust the house and comb out my Great Grandma’s
hair. My mom being a single parent could have easily neglected my Grandma, but
that would not be the nature of my mom. I don’t think it ever crossed her mind
to miss a Saturday at my grandmas.
My mom had such a great example of how to serve
others, this being my Great Grandma Stratton.
My sister Amy wrote a short summary that couldn’t
explain my great grandmother more. She wrote “My Great Grandma Fern Slack
Jackson Stratton grew up in Toquerville in a happy home. When I think of my
grandma these words come to mind; love, sacrifice, work, service, and faith.
Her faith grew thru her trials, she was divorced with 3 small children to raise
on her own, she worked hard to support her children and have food on the table
and clothes on their backs, she worked for 20 years in the St. George Mcgregor
Hospital where she worked with Dr. DW McGregor, Dr. Reichmann, and with Mary
Whitehurst. She delivered or assisted in delivering half the babies born during
that time. She met and married my Great Grandfather Tom Stratton and helped
raise his family. But her biggest sacrifice was when her youngest daughter
Carol(my grandmother) died 6 weeks after having my mother from complications.
Before my grandmother died she asked my grandma Fern to raise her children. My
great grandma at the age of 50 adopted 4 small children the youngest my mother
at 6 weeks of age and raised them. She
watched all 3 of her children pass away before her, she was an extremely hard
worker and she never complained. She would do anything for anyone and did it
with a smile. She taught me these virtues.
A couple of weeks before she passed away she had a new bishopric, she
invited them over. She made sure she was in her Sunday best to greet her new
bishop p Bert Whimpey and asked for a blessing. She was grateful to have the
priesthood in her home and asked for a priesthood blessing. She was a woman of
selfless service that she demonstrated her whole life and in trun raised my own
mother that way. She always thought what can I do for others. Even thru her
trials and tribulations she had a testimony of what the savior said “when you
loose yourself in the service of other, you find yourself.”
It is not until I had my own child that I truly
understood how much service my mother gave to me as a child. From the sleepless
nights, to the long fit throwing days a mother’s service to her children is
never ending. Elder Jeffrey R Holland states, “In speaking of mothers generally, I especially wish
to praise and encourage young mothers. The work of a mother is hard, too often
unheralded work. The young years are often those when either husband or wife—or
both—may still be in school or in those earliest and leanest stages of
developing the husband’s breadwinning capacities. Finances fluctuate daily
between low and nonexistent. The car, if there is one, runs on smooth tires and
an empty tank. But with night feedings and night teething’s, often the greatest
challenge of all for a young mother is simply fatigue. Through these years,
mothers go longer on less sleep and give more to others with less personal renewal
for themselves than any other group I know at any other time in life. It is not
surprising when the shadows under their eyes sometimes vaguely resemble the
state of Rhode Island.” Close quote
The
past three years I have been working as a nurse for the Health Department. My
job entails going into the homes of Newborn’s born on Medicaid. I have seen a
vast array of lifestyles and households, from single mothers, to those who have
been widowed or divorced. I have noticed over these years that although their
houses or lifestyles are different one constant remains. The selfless act of
love and service they give to their newborn babies.
Elder Neal L Anderson simply states, “Motherhood is
not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them
cuter then stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It
is what God gave you time for.” Close quote. Time: something before having Gus
I thought was never ending. If I wanted to sew a blanket I could, if I wanted
to take a nap in the middle of the day I could, if I wanted to go running I
could. I have been frustrated many times over the past 18 months because it
seems that I can never accomplish what I want to do. After reading this quote
from Elder Anderson it hit me, my time is for my son. Motherhood is what God
gave me time for. My time is right now is to serve my young boy and teach him
true gospel principles, my time right now is for jumping in rain puddles and
kissing owies, my time right now is precious.
There are many moms in this audience that gave me
the impression growing up that motherhood is easy, and that making chocolate
cake before anyone wakes up is normal. You have given me the impression that
having multiple children and being able to sit through an entire hour of
sacrament is doable. Some Sunday’s I pray that we can make it through the
opening song, but I want to thank all of the mother’s in the congregation for
their countless hours of service they give their children and for their
examples to me and my small family. I know motherhood is a divine role and I am
truly blessed to have a mother who taught me how to serve. I am grateful for
the opportunity to have such a divine calling and raise such a beautiful boy.
