Mother's Day feels

This mother's day came with all the feels.    Both of my girls were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting.   They both did amazing jobs delivering their talks with such confidence and eloquence.   There is no better feeling than seeing your children develop into who they are made to be with their own testimonies of the gospel.  I'm blessed to be a mother of such fine children.   The greatest love I've felt is the love I feel for them.   Below is their talks they wrote so I will always have a record of the kind words they shared with me.  

 

Emily's talk

Hi, my name is Emily Richards and i was asked to speak on how we learn to live the gospel from our mothers and how we learn about gratitude from our mothers. And when i read this i instantly remember how i have learned about gratitude from my mother. When i was younger, we hadn’t moved into the house we currently live in and the only sibling i had was jane. And during a family home evening activity in late November my mom walked into the kitchen holding a giant black plate and glitter glue. she then said that we will be making The grateful plate. I didn’t quite understand what this meant but i really wanted to play with the glitter glue. And soon later the grateful plate was born. Soon after that i realized what the real point of it was, every night at dinner everyone would take a turn and they would be able to set the table and lay the grateful plate on someone’s seat, we never ate off of it but if you were the lucky one to have the grateful plate you would say what you are grateful for today or talk about why you are grateful for someone i loved doing this every night. But when we moved it got shoved into a box and was forgotten about until my younger brother aaron found it in the storage room and we continued the tradition until it broke and we had to get rid of it. I’m sure that it the grateful plate never existed i would still have learned how to be grateful and what gratitude really means but i wouldn’t have been able to love gratitude and how lucky i am to have the family and mother that i do. i then asked both of my brothers why they are grateful for there mom and spencer my youngest brother said because i love mom and she loves me and my other brother aaron said because she’s nice. They are very standard and basic questions but at least they understood the question. without our mothers we wouldn’t be able to accomplish half the things we do and without my mother the house would become very messy very quickly but our house would also lack a lot of joy and happiness. Mothers help us learn how to live the gospel because from a very young age they teach us how to pray. But as we get other at least my mother taught be how to pay my tithing and why it is important, she also taught be able how amazing the scriptures are and how they can impact us. And now a way that my mom helps me live the gospel is to drive me to seminary every monday and tuesday and 6 in the morning. Without her i wouldn’t be able to get there and sometimes i wouldn’t be able to wake up, but she will come and nudge me in the shoulder and tell me to get up but i’ll just roll over and then she continues to nudge me until i wake up for which sometimes i don’t like but i do appreciate it. Our mothers, grandmothers, and mother like figures in our lives are truly amazing and special in there own way and without them the world would be a little less joyful and the spirit wouldn’t be as strong.

Jane's talk

Hello everyone my name is Jane Richards and I was asked to speak on my mom and how thankful I am for her.  A talk from Jeffrey R. Holland says “Mothers, we acknowledge and esteem your faith in every footstep” closed quote, and that just got me thinking how much faith my mom has.  She has gone through many hard things and she always relates them back to Heavenly Father and how it’s part of the plan that he has for us. 

 This has taught me so much to know that Heavenly Father does have a plan for us and that plan isn’t a smooth one it’s filled with many bumps and hills but if we still have faith we can make it over that hill.  My mom has taught me not to blame all our problems on Heavenly Father but instead to thank him for the challenges that we got to learn along the way. 

 A talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson says “Women bring with them into the world a certain virtue, a divine gift that makes them adept at instilling such qualities as faith, courage, empathy, and refinement in relationships and in cultures.” closed quote. This quote stood out to me because my mom does teach me and shows me how she does each of those things and how I should too. 

My mom is the most inspiring woman in my life and everyday she encourages me to serve.  I have seen her bring dinner to people, clean their houses, pay for people's groceries, and more, and all I think about it is wow I want to be like that. I want to be the person that is so kind to everyone and always wants to serve. 

 One of the ten commandments is to honor thy father and thy mother, I think that is very important and that if we respect our parents and listen to them, we will learn from it. My mother has always taught me to be grateful for the little things, when I listen to her instead of comparing myself to other people I find myself to be much happier. 

 My mom also pushes me to do many things.  She constantly talks about her mission and how the people she served felt.  She says that her mission was one of the most spiritual things in her life.  She encourages reading the scriptures, come follow me, and family prayer. 

 My mom is always so busy with my family including me that sometimes I don’t know how she is able to be so spiritual and how she never forgets to include the gospel into our daily lives.  I don’t know what I’d do without my mom, she is always there to comfort me when I need it, to talk and to laugh.  All in all, I’m so grateful for the wonderful mom of mine.  I’d like to say happy mother’s day to all the mom’s.  In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.