Mother's Day

I'm missing out on some great blessings by not visiting this blog more often.  Today is Mother's Day, once again and I've had a very nice day despite my tendency to feel sorry for myself on Mother's Day.  My children are all "elsewhere".  Anna and Stan have moved to Tempe, AZ,  Brenda, Derek and Daevius have moved to Boulder, UT, and Bill, Stephanie, Ben & Elodie are still in Provo, UT.  No kids in my immediate vicinity to bring me an inedible breakfast in bed and invade my house for the day - SO I was feeling sorry for myself.  My sweet son (actually I suspect it was my daughter-in-law) sent me a mug with pictures of my grandchildren all over it. My husband cooked dinner, and Bill called me and we talked for an hour.  I took a nap in the afternoon.  Now I'm just hanging out for the rest of the day.  I called my moms yesterday, and everyone seems to be doing okay.  Life is good.

Now for a few of my thoughts, ramblings, etc about mothers.  The Smith's spoke in church today on the subject of mothers.  I really enjoyed their messages. It had me thinking (as the talks on Mother's Day usually do) about what kind of mother I have been and the mother's I have had in my life.  I remember wanting to be the best mother EVER.  (Not exactly an original goal - but worthy, I think)  I wasn't.  Every mother has things they would do differently if given the chance.  Every mother looks back at their own maternal parent with a mixture of critique and emulation and tries to choose the best of what she got and improve on the things that maybe did not go so well.  The trouble is that the critique portion of the program is taken on by an inexperienced blockhead.  My own mother had a boatload (sure glad I cleaned that up) of challenges when she was parenting me and I could probably spend some time talking about what went wrong but as I look back at my own successes and failures, I'm not sure the beam has been removed from my own eye enough to clearly see the mote in my mom's.  Here are the things my mother has done exceptionally well for me.  She convinced me that I was smart and capable.  She taught me that if I wanted to do something I would be able to do it - but I might have to be willing to get there on my own.  She showed me that people can fall down and make mistakes and can pick their lives up and move on.  Recently, my mother told me she was proud of the things I have accomplished.  What she missed is that the pure stubborn strength that has gotten me here (my hubby grumbles about my "Danish streak") really did come from her.  I love my mom, and I'm grateful for the things I have learned about love and humility as well as perseverance from her.  Thanks Mom.