Bethanyology

Image by hint of plum via Flickr

To all of you moms out there, happy Mother’s Day!  My mother is definitely one of the best mothers ever, and I dare anyone to try to top her efforts or results.   Really, try it, you’ll be happier for it.  My mom is a great teacher and nurturer without being smothering or pedantic.  It’s a tough line to walk, but she does it gracefully and I’m grateful for her example.  Thank you for all you do for me and my little family, Mom.

I’ve had an awesome, though atypical, Mother’s Day so far.  Usually Sunday mornings are full of me rushing around trying to get everyone else to rush around to get ready for church.  This morning was calm and relaxed with no rushing, yet we all got to church early–and completely dressed!  And I even had time/took the time to curl my hair, so I felt relatively pretty.

At church some kids and the EQ president helped me set up the Primary room, so I got to sit down in plenty of time for Sacrament Meeting with my family in the pew instead of in the hallway.  Although neither of my counselors were at church today, my secretary was at church after a few weeks of travel and was soooo wonderfully helpful.  Two kids actually begged me to let them give the talk and scripture (which coincidentally hadn’t been assigned in advance this week) and we’d asked a member of the bishopric weeks before to do Sharing Time, so all I had to do was conduct and patrol the halls.  My patrolling was fun because we had some exciting “emergencies” like a little boy with his foot harmlessly stuck under a chair that I got to un-stick.

Near the beginning of Primary, my husband came in to let me know that he was going with some of the rest of the EQ to go help a family in the stake whose house had been severely damaged in a tornado last night.  So, after Primary I headed home alone with the kids and called some of my sisters and my mother.  Then I got to go visit my Primary counselor who recently got home from the hospital and had a great time talking with her, despite the kids’ unsuccessful attempts to destroy her home.  Colin called me on the way home from that to say he’s on his way home.

It’s been a great day.  Not because of all the thoughtful gifts my husband and kids did or didn’t get me, and not because I’m a great mother, and not because everything fell into place the way I would have imagined it if I were designing the perfect Mother’s Day.  It’s been a great Mother’s Day because the Lord has blessed me with gratitude today.  I’m grateful for the silk flower corsages the young women and young men at church gave to all the women in the ward.  I’m grateful for the Mother’s Day handprints my kids made for me in Nursery today.  I’m grateful to have two good, healthy kids–a huge blessing that I’m more aware of since I’m often in the company of women who don’t have children at all.  I’m grateful that Colin did the dishes last night just to make me happy.  I’m grateful to have the kind of husband who will cheerfully leave a meeting to serve strangers far away doing the manual labor he normally dislikes so much.  I’m grateful to be healthy and strong and to be able to move around and do almost anything I want to do and to have had a full night of sleep last night in a safe place.  I’m thankful to have plenty of food in the house for our family.  I’m thankful to have a family that loves me and accepts me, flaws and all.  I’m thankful for my mother and her mother and my father’s mother.  And today is perfect.

Tags: Family, gratitude, Holidays, Mother's Day, mothers