I love it when the Bishopric gives flowers to all the adult women in the ward on Mother’s Day. I haven’t always been a fan of Mother’s Day. I went through my twenties without having kids, and I was skeptical that I would or even should be included. Now I have a testimony of the divine nature of motherhood and that it includes every woman.

Before I had kids, I wanted them. I had helped raise a lot of children, but I was never "the mom." Mother's Day was torture; I started skipping church that day. I wouldn't hold people’s babies. I'd been planning to have seven kids since seventh grade.  But I didn't know when or if it would ever happen. I turned 30 without children, but with the hope of them on my horizon.

I will always be grateful to my husband for making me a mother. I married him five days after my thirtieth birthday and became mom to his ten-year-old son. Nine months later I became second mom to his three daughters. Three months after that our baby boy was born. My oldest daughter asked me one day when the baby was a few weeks old what it felt like to be a "real" mom. I quickly responded, "It feels like it always has." And I meant it. I love my kids, all of them. Those I have now and those I helped raise before.  It took giving birth to make me know giving birth doesn't make a difference. I was always a mom; I just didn’t believe it.

To quote the Relief Society theme, “We are women . . . who: dedicate ourselves to strengthening marriages, families, and homes. Find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood.” Every woman is included. Any woman in the wide world who isn’t living these standards should be. We are here to help others; we each have the power. Satan is out to debase us in any way he can, by devaluing motherhood, belittling womanhood, by dividing women’s sisterhood when we all should be sharing a common purpose. (He is doing this to fatherhood, manhood, and brotherhood as well.)

We are here to nurture the present and thereby brighten the future. Every woman should be doing this. If a woman is giving or receiving on-demand abortions, or smoking a crack pipe, or any other of the countless activities which does not further Heavenly Father’s purpose, she is using her power for evil.

Since formally becoming a mother, I've had many trials. It isn’t all sunshine and roses, but there are sunshine and roses, and four-year-old boys singing “Twinkle Little Star” to their two-month-old sisters, and two-year-old daughters saying, “Mommy, I happy be your girl.” And a ten year olds, “Mommy, will you rock me?” And a fifteen-year-old son who sees Mother’s Day commercials and remembers to mail the second mushiest e-card he could find.

I have kids now. I didn't always have kids, but someone always needed my nurturing. Someone always needed my light to shine so that they could see my good works and glorify our Father in Heaven (Matt. 5:16). We are all here together to accomplish the same purpose; let us all shine to light the way for one another. A special day to celebrate the mothers we all are, have been, and shall be. Hallelujah Mother’s Day!

Tags: Mother's Day Mom Motherhood Children Gratitude Light Help Share Woman Women

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