Mother's Day Talk

I was "blessed" with the opportunity of speaking in church today. On Mother's Day, of all days. I never realized how daunting it is to have to speak on Mother's Day. I gotta tell ya, I struggled just a little bit. I know that this day is not the happiest day for a lot of women and a lot of men, for that matter, including my dad. He commented one time that Mother's Day wasn't his favorite day because his mother had some struggles in her life. I also wanted to be sensitive to the single sisters and those women who desperately want children or more children and that dream has not been fulfilled. So instead, I decided to shift the focus of my talk to womanhood and incorporating motherhood into it. The basis of my talk was on this quote by Sheri Dew:

Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us. President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that 'God planted within women something divine.' 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, and inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls...and the regenerating force in the lives of God's children.' ... We are all mothers in Israel, and our calling is to love and help lead the rising generation through the dangerous streets of mortality.  (For the full talk  http://www.lds.org/liahona/2002/01/are-we-not-all-mothers?lang=eng )

I also shared this quote by Neal A. Maxwell:


In our modern kingdom, it is no accident that women were, through the Relief Society, assigned compassionate service. So often the service of women seems instinctive, while that of some men seems more labored. It is precisely because the daughters of Zion are so uncommon that the adversary will not leave them alone. 
We salute you, sisters, for the joy that is yours as you rejoice in a baby's first smile and as you listen with eager ear to a child's first day of school which bespeaks a special selflessness. You rock a sobbing child without wondering if today's world is passing you by, because you know you hold tomorrow tightly in your arms. 
So often our sisters comfort others when their own needs are greater than those being comforted. That quality is like the generosity of Jesus on the cross. Empathy during agony is a portion of divinity. 
When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time. The women of God know this.