Mothers Day Talk

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.