The Mother's Day Post

I know that everyone will post their smushy "I love my Mommy!" posts to celebrate Mother's Day. I'd like to try mine in a little different way. Not that the mothers in my life aren't wonderful, but it's me and I figured I'd be different.

Once upon a time I thought that being a mother was all about keeping the kids entertained until they fell asleep, keeping the house clean, and making sure that there is food ready to eat when the troops return from a rough day at the office. This is all true, but there is so much more.

Being a mother isn't just about child care or house work. It's not even about the dinner that you prepare or the take out that you order! Being a mother is something much more.

Cleaning up unspeakable things from the floor, the bathroom, in the bed, and occasionally all over the entire child happens too. Putting band-aids on boo boos and checking the closet to make sure that the bad guy "Randal" isn't in there are pretty frequent events. Making sure that we read books for as long as we watch TV (or at least close to it!) is a far greater task than I had anticipated. Many sore throats have been caused from the avid movie watcher in our household!

Being a mother is a learning experience. I learn what I say often as it is repeated back to me over and over throughout the day. I learn how I walk and what I do with my hands when I talk as I watch the girls imitated me exactly. I learn how to love each and everyday.

A little while ago Brooke was into something she shouldn't have been and in my frustration I sighed and said, "Ok, do you want to go to timeout?" with a stern cold tone of voice. (Not that I would ever put a baby in the dreaded "timeout" but I was really wearing thin at that moment and it felt good to threaten!)

Eryn leaps up from what she was doing and in tears she pleaded at my feet and saying, "Mommy no! Don't put my baby sister in timeout. I go to timeout. Not Brooke!!!!!! She's too tiny. Mommy please no!!!!!!"

Eryn (who has had her fair share of timeouts) was volunteering to go to timeout for her sister! I almost started to cry. She knew that her baby sister didn't understand what she was doing wrong. She knew that she wanted to make Mommy happy, but didn't know why I was upset with her. Eryn jumped in the middle and begged for forgiveness for her sister and offered herself to take the punishment for the innocent one who didn't know any better.

That pure love that she has for her sister is the love that our Savior has for each of us. He begged and pleaded for forgiveness for us. He offered himself as a sacrifice so that we could stay free from sin if we chose to do so.

In all of my time thinking about what it meant to be a mother, I never realized that being a mother is the opportunity to see the love our Father in Heaven and our Savior has for us from one of the purest sources.