About Mothers

Welcome to the Neighborhood News

We’re coming up on that all important day of the year: Mother’s Day. The day that if you don’t remember, you’re certainly in big trouble.

I’d like to share something that President Thomas S. Monson (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint) said in his talk Behold Thy Mother. He mentioned four different mothers:

1-      “‘Mother forgotten’ is observed all too frequently. The nursing homes are crowded, the hospital beds are full, the days come and go—often the weeks and months pass—but mother is not visited. Can we not appreciate the pangs of loneliness, the yearnings of mother’s heart when hour after hour, alone in her age, she gazes out the window for the loved one who does not visit, the letter the postman does not bring?

2-  Men turn from evil and yield to their better natures when mother is remembered. A famed officer from the Civil War period, Colonel Higginson, when asked to name an incident that he considered remarkable, said that there was ... a man whom everybody like, ... absolutely free of dissipations. One night at a champagne supper, when many were becoming intoxicated, someone in jest called for a toast from this young man. The man arose and declared: 'Gentlemen, I will give you a toast which you may drink as you will, but which I will drink in water. The toast is 'Our Mothers.' Instantly a strange spell seemed to come over all the tipsy men. They drank the toast in silence. The lamp of memory had begun to burn, and the name of Mother touched every man's heart.

3-  Let us turn to 'mother blessed.' For one of the most beautiful and reverent examples, I refer to the Holy Scriptures. In the New Testament of our Lord, perhaps we have no more moving account than the tender regard of the Master for the grieving widow at Nain.

4-  Finally, let us contemplate 'mother loved.' One certain way each can demostrate genuine love for mother is to live the truths mother so patiently taught. Such a lofty goal is not new to our present generation. In the times described in the Book of Mormon, we read of a brave leader named Helaman who did march in righteous battle at the head of 2,000 young men." 

I've been taken by the story of the stripling warrior mothers for a very long time. I remember reading it again and again, thinking that I wanted them to be a model to me. In fact, my son knows that if someone were to ask me what my favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon is, there's no doubt which one I'd choose.

Of course we all want to be in the last group. Do you think the Lamanite mothers just sat around and waited for their sons to grow up to be righteous men, or maybe they taught them from the time they were very young?

As always we welcome your comments.

To view a copy of the Neighborhood News for Monday 2 May, click here.