The Very Noblest

Ironically enough, I found a paper all folded up in my scriptures at church today with some quotes about motherhood. It's almost like it was just folded away in the pages of my New Testament, waiting to find its way out on Mothers' Day.

Here is what this wonderful little paper read:

"You cannot trust the many conflicting voices that clamor about what women should or should not do in today's society. Some of the loudest voices are echoes of those others who are out of harmony with themselves and out of tune with life in general rather than being unhappy with their role as a woman. 


Do not be deceived in your quest to find happiness and an identity of your own. Entreating voices may tell you that what you have seen your mothers and grandmothers do is old-fashioned, unchallenging, boring, and drudgery. It may have been old-fashioned and perhaps routine; at times it was drudgery. But your mothers and grandmothers have sung a song that expressed the highest love and the noblest of womanly feelings. They have been our nurturers and our teachers. They have sanctified the work, transforming drudgery into the noblest enterprises. 


President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that God planted within women something divine. That something is the gift and the gifts of motherhood. Elder Matthew Cowley taught that men have to have something given to them in mortality to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. They are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls . . . and the regenerating force in the lives of God's children." 




As I get older and, I suppose, closer to becoming a mother myself, I understand more and more how special mothers are. I am so grateful to be a woman. And I'm so grateful to be a woman who is surrounded by countless motherly figures.

So if you are a woman who uses your divine power to nurture others, I wish you a very Happy Mothers' Day.

And a very special Happy Mothers' Day to my own mom and my mom-in-law. They are excellent examples to me of service, of love, of optimism, and sincerity. I hope you both know how very loved you are.