Post # 100 --- Mother’s Day Message “Behold Thy Mother”
Dear Family and Friends
With Mother’s Day fast approaching, I wanted to reach out to all of you who are mothers or who will be mothers some time in the future. Remember that you are in a partnership with your husband and your Father in heaven when you bring these little angels here to earth, so we must do our best by them every day. We must teach them that they too are a child of God, that He knows each one of them and He loves them --- no matter what!!!
Mothers are so important in the nurturing of their children. I realized one day that when I held a little baby – it seemed as if they knew the song ’I am a Child of God’ as I sang it to them😊 it happened many times with many babies, so whether or not it is true – that they are familiar with the song or not, I am not sure --- but it sure seems so. Maybe they sing that song in heaven, what do you think? Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to get off track --- back to our mothers --- I remembered a talk that I wanted to share with all of you.
It was given back in October of 2015 by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland titled: ‘Behold Thy Mother.’ I love his quote from this talk it says that: “No love I mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love of a devoted mother has for her child.”
Prophesying of the Savior’s Atonement, Isaiah wrote, “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”
Isaiah 53:4. -- Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken of God, and afflicted.
A majestic latter-day vision emphasized that “[Jesus] came into the world … to bear the sins of the world.”
Doctrine and Covenants 76:41. -- That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sons of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;
Both ancient and modern scripture testify that “he redeemed them, and bore them, and carried them all the days of old.”
Isaiah 63:9.---- In all their afflictions he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them; and in his love, and in his pity he redeemed them; and bore them, and carried them all the days of old;
Doctrine and Covenants 133:53 --- In all their afflictions he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them; and in his love, and in his pity he redeemed them; and bore them, and carried them all the days of old;
A favorite hymn pleads with us to “hear your great Deliv’rer’s voice!”
Israel, Israel, God Is Calling
1. Israel, Israel, God is calling,
Calling thee from lands of woe. Babylon the great is falling; God shall all her tow'rs o'erthrow. Come to Zion, come to Zion Ere his floods of anger flow. Come to Zion, come to Zion Ere his floods of anger flow. |
2. Israel, Israel, God is speaking.
Hear your great Deliv'rer's voice! Now a glorious morn is breaking For the people of his choice. Come to Zion, come to Zion, And within her walls rejoice. Come to Zion, come to Zion, And within her walls rejoice. |
3. Israel, angels are descending
From celestial worlds on high, And to man their pow'r extending, That the Saints may homeward fly. Come to Zion, come to Zion, For your coming Lord is nigh. Come to Zion, come to Zion, For your coming Lord is nigh. |
4. Israel! Israel! Canst thou linger
Still in error's gloomy ways? Mark how judgment's pointing finger Justifies no vain delays. Come to Zion, come to Zion! Zion's walls shall ring with praise. Come to Zion, come to Zion! Zion's walls shall ring with praise. |
Text: Richard Smyth, 1838-1914
Music: Charles C. Converse, 1832-1918
Bear, borne, carry, deliver. These are powerful, heartening messianic words. They convey help and hope for safe movement from where we are to where we need to be—but cannot get without assistance. These words also connote burden, struggle, and fatigue—words most appropriate in describing the mission of Him who, at unspeakable cost, lifts us up when we have fallen, carries us forward when strength is gone, delivers us safely home when safety seems far beyond our reach. “My Father sent me,” He said, “that I might be lifted up upon the cross; … that as I have been lifted up … even so should men be lifted up … to … me.”
3 Nephi 27:14. -- And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil -
But can you hear in this language another arena of human endeavor in which we use words like bear and borne, carry and lift, labor and deliver? As Jesus said to John while in the very act of Atonement, so He says to us all, “Behold thy mother!”
John 19:27. -- Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. .
Today I declare from this pulpit what has been said here before: that no love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child. When Isaiah, speaking messianically, wanted to convey Jehovah’s love, he invoked the image of a mother’s devotion. “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” he asks. How absurd, he implies, though not as absurd as thinking Christ will ever forget us.7
Isaiah 49:15 -- Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
This kind of resolute love “suffereth long, and is kind, … seeketh not her own, … but … beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”8 Most encouraging of all, such fidelity “never faileth.”9 “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,” Jehovah said, “but my kindness shall not depart from thee.”10 So too say our mothers.
Moroni 7:45 -- And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.. You can find these same words if you look in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7
Moroni 7:46 -- Wherefore, my beloved rethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth, wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail -- You can find similar words if you look in 1 Corinthians 13:8. Charity never faileth but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away,
You see, it is not only that they bear us, but they continue bearing with us. It is not only the prenatal carrying but the lifelong carrying that makes mothering such a staggering feat. Of course, there are heartbreaking exceptions, but most mothers know intuitively, instinctively that this is a sacred trust of the highest order. The weight of that realization, especially on young maternal shoulders, can be very daunting.
When I had my first child and almost lost her on several occasions due to her having severe health issues – it was I not a member of the Church as yet. I have learned since then that I must be a very slow learner. The reason I say this is because there were several opportunities for me to have joined the church earlier, but for one reason or another I never took even one of those opportunities. I often wonder if I had joined the church earlier in my life, if my life would have turned out very much different or if it would have been relatively the same?? --- and there I go rambling and I have got off track again☹
A wonderful young mother recently wrote to me: “How is it that a human being can love a child so deeply that you willingly give up a major portion of your freedom for it? How can mortal love be so strong that you voluntarily subject yourself to responsibility, vulnerability, anxiety, and heartache and just keep coming back for more of the same? What kind of mortal love can make you feel, once you have a child, that your life is never, ever your own again? Maternal love has to be divine. There is no other explanation for it. What mothers do is an essential element of Christ’s work. Knowing that should be enough to tell us the impact of such love will range between unbearable and transcendent, over and over again, until with the safety and salvation of the very last child on earth, we can [then] say with Jesus, ‘[Father!] I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.’”
John 17:4. -- I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
When I became a mother it completely changed my life!!! This young mother is right. She has asked all of the questions each of us mother’s have probably asked ourselves, or some fashion od these questions I would imagine. “How is it that a human being can love a child so deeply that you willingly give up a major portion of your freedom for it? How can mortal love be so strong that you voluntarily subject yourself to responsibility, vulnerability, anxiety, and heartache and just keep coming back for more of the same? What kind of mortal love can make you feel, once you have a child, that your life is never, ever your own again? Maternal love has to be divine.”
Like I said, becoming a mother completely changed my life and with a child with a breathing disorder it was very challenging for me for the first fifteen months of her life. She was always in the hospital, never home more than two weeks at a time. I do not think that I really appreciated my mother until I became a mother myself. My own mother struggled to be a mother because of the way that she had been raised and because f the fact that she did not even have a sixth -grade education before she herself became a mother. Then when she was in her early twenties, her husband passed away leaving her with five small children to care for.
I watched my mother care for us in the only way she knew how to do. As I grew up, I did not have kind feelings toward my mother, mostly because I did not understand the ‘why’ of what she did ‘to’ her children. I watched her putting up with my brothers and all the stuff they got into – mostly trouble. It is true that you never stop being a mother – even when ( and I might add—especially when) your children are grown and have left home😊 it seems that a mother’s job is never done, and then you become a grandmother😊 For me, my youngest child was not quite three my first granddaughter came to live with us. Mothers are important!!
With the elegance of that letter echoing in our minds, let me share three experiences reflecting the majestic influence of mothers, witnessed in my ministry in just the past few weeks:
My first account is a cautionary one, reminding us that not every maternal effort has a storybook ending, at least not immediately. That reminder stems from my conversation with a beloved friend of more than 50 years who was dying away from this Church he knew in his heart to be true. No matter how much I tried to comfort him, I could not seem to bring him peace. Finally he leveled with me. “Jeff,” he said, “however painful it is going to be for me to stand before God, I cannot bear the thought of standing before my mother. The gospel and her children meant everything to her. I know I have broken her heart, and that is breaking mine.”
Now, I am absolutely certain that upon his passing, his mother received my friend with open, loving arms; that is what parents do. But the cautionary portion of this story is that children can break their mothers’ heart. Here too we see another comparison with the divine. I need not remind us that Jesus died of a broken heart, one weary and worn out from bearing the sins of the world. So in any moment of temptation, may we “behold [our] mother” as well as our Savior and spare them both the sorrow of our sinning.
His words here bear repeating – for all of us because we are all children of our Heavenly Father. “Children can break their mother’s heart☹” and we can and do break our Savior’s heart too☹ “So, in any moment of temptation, may we “behold [our] mother” as well as our Savior and spare them both the sorrow of our sinning.” Let us each be more aware of the things that we do and say --- especially to those whom we love. Let us each do as Elder Holland has said that we “behold [our] mother(s)” as well as our Savior. We must think of them as we make our decisions.
Secondly, I speak of a young man who entered the mission field worthily but by his own choice returned home early due to same-sex attraction and some trauma he experienced in that regard. He was still worthy, but his faith was at crisis level, his emotional burden grew ever heavier, and his spiritual pain was more and more profound. He was by turns hurt, confused, angry, and desolate.
His mission president, his stake president, his bishop spent countless hours searching and weeping and blessing him as they held on to him, but much of his wound was so personal that he kept at least parts of it beyond their reach. The beloved father in this story poured his entire soul into helping this child, but his very demanding employment circumstance meant that often the long, dark nights of the soul were faced by just this boy and his mother. Day and night, first for weeks, then for months that turned into years, they sought healing together. Through periods of bitterness (mostly his but sometimes hers) and unending fear (mostly hers but sometimes his), she bore—there’s that beautiful, burdensome word again—she bore to her son her testimony of God’s power, of His Church, but especially of His love for this child. In the same breath she testified of her own uncompromised, undying love for him as well. To bring together those two absolutely crucial, essential pillars of her very existence—the gospel of Jesus Christ and her family—she poured out her soul in prayer endlessly. She fasted and wept, she wept and fasted, and then she listened and listened as this son repeatedly told her of how his heart was breaking. Thus she carried him—again—only this time it was not for nine months. This time she thought that laboring through the battered landscape of his despair would take forever.
But with the grace of God, her own tenacity, and the help of scores of Church leaders, friends, family members, and professionals, this importuning mother has seen her son come home to the promised land. Sadly we acknowledge that such a blessing does not, or at least has not yet, come to all parents who anguish over a wide variety of their children’s circumstances, but here there was hope. And, I must say, this son’s sexual orientation did not somehow miraculously change—no one assumed it would. But little by little, his heart changed.
He started back to church. He chose to partake of the sacrament willingly and worthily. He again obtained a temple recommend and accepted a call to serve as an early-morning seminary teacher, where he was wonderfully successful. And now, after five years, he has, at his own request and with the Church’s considerable assistance, reentered the mission field to complete his service to the Lord. I have wept over the courage, integrity, and determination of this young man and his family to work things out and to help him keep his faith. He knows he owes much to many, but he knows he owes the most to two messianic figures in his life, two who bore him and carried him, labored with him and delivered him—his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his determined, redemptive, absolutely saintly mother.
Lastly, this from the rededication of the Mexico City Mexico Temple just three weeks ago. It was there with President Henry B. Eyring that we saw our beloved friend Lisa Tuttle Pieper stand in that moving dedicatory service. But she stood with some difficulty because with one arm she was holding up her beloved but severely challenged daughter, Dora, while with the other she was trying to manipulate Dora’s dysfunctional right hand so this limited but eternally precious daughter of God could wave a white handkerchief and, with groans intelligible only to herself and the angels of heaven, cry out, “Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb.”
You can read about the importance of this ceremony in the Church’s History here: https://www.lds.org/manual/our-heritage/chapter-three?lang=eng¶=title19#title19
To all of our mothers everywhere, past, present, or future, I say, “Thank you. Thank you for giving birth, for shaping souls, for forming character, and for demonstrating the pure love of Christ.” To Mother Eve, to Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel, to Mary of Nazareth, and to a Mother in Heaven, I say, “Thank you for your crucial role in fulfilling the purposes of eternity.” To all mothers in every circumstance, including those who struggle—and all will—I say, “Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better than you think you are. In fact, you are saviors on Mount Zion, and like the Master you follow, your love ‘never faileth.’ ” I can pay no higher tribute to anyone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Obadiah 1:21.--- And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s
Moroni 7:46---- Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity ever faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail –
1 Corinthians 13:8 --- Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
I love what he said in the last few lines of his talk. I believe his words are again worth repeating: “To all mothers in every circumstance, including those who struggle—and all will—I say, “Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better than you think you are. In fact, you are saviors on Mount Zion, and like the Master you follow, your love ‘never faileth.’” I can pay no higher tribute to anyone.”
Elder Holland’s words are truly a hard tribute to all mothers to follow, but I wanted to share with all of you mothers out there this verse I wrote a few years ago. I call it “A Mother’s Promise” I hope all of you mothers like it.
A Mother’s Promise
When you marry, a partnership is formed, and you become a wife.
Two become one and together they begin to build a new life.
And though some people might find this concept a bit odd…
The two together join into a partnership with God.
And then with faith the three together create new life.
A new little being you will help through all the strife.
As a mother, you will find life’s greatest joy…
As you nurture your beautiful baby girl or boy.
You will have times that are high as well as low…
As you watch and help your little bundle to grow.
You will marvel as they pass each milestone along the way,
Together you’ll cherish the joy in each passing day.
Remember the Lord and thank Him when all is well…
And thank Him too, when the outcome is hard to tell.
Don’t forget Him, and I promise little mother dear…
That He will remember you from year to year.
He will give you comfort when times for you are sad.
He will be with you as well, when times are glad.
Thank Him daily for the honor to you, He has given..
Thank Him to for the Son who has died and risen.
So for each sweet mother, whoever you are…
Remember you are at least one child’s superstar!
So hold your baby close and teach them well each day,
Remember the Lord and He will show you the way!
He will help each of you through the daily strife.
Being a mother is one of the greatest blessings in life!!
Well, my dear Family and Friends, we are at the end of today’s blog. Sorry guys, but today is all about all of the mother’s out there😊 Dear sweet mother’s wherever you are out in this world, what ever your circumstances are at this time in your lives, remember that your Heavenly Father loves you and He is there for you, every day and in every way!! I promise that you can count on Him, you can put your trust in Him. He knows you, He loves each one of you. He is proud to be your partner with the lives you bring into this world😊
As always, make it a spectacular week! And again, to all of you mothers out there I am wishing you a wonderful day. I hope each of you are healthy and well for this your Mother’s Day😊 so, until my next post keep studying the New testament with me, keep saying your prayers, and keep your trust and faith in the Lord, as He is there for you!
you can watch some videos about mothers here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/topics/mothers?lang=eng&_r=1
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