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A few Saturday’s ago, I was driving down the highway, having just dropped our youngest off at a friend’s – her fourteen year old laughter still ringing in the air. Golden sunlight shimmered across the sky as the sun set deeper in the west. A team of little leaguers and their cheering parents caught my eye in the distance and a flood of memories came rushing through my mind. Weren’t we just there with our own little boys? That same weekend we had been tending our seventeen-month-old granddaughter while her parents were out of town. It was as if we had our own little daughter back, her smiles and laughter so characteristic of her mother twenty-four years earlier. How did those years go so fast?! I would love to go back and relive just one day in my young motherhood life! (Notice – I said just one day, I also remember how exhausting they were as well!!) I would choose a chaotic day, with little ones running through the house, green sweat pants and red tennis shoes, baseball bats and soccer balls lying in the yard, chattering voices and squeals at the dinner table, spilled milk and evening baths; and I would stand in the middle of it all and take it all in! I would gaze into their trusting faces, and sparkling, dancing eyes. I would listen to the stories, and who hit what homerun and I would treasure every moment – even the one when I found out from a neighbor that our five year old daughter and a friend were standing on the corner of the entrance to our neighborhood holding a large sign that read, “will work (w-e-r-k) for food!” I rejoice with Jane Clayson, when she said at the 2006 Conference on the Family – “Motherhood is surely the highest and holiest of assignments. I believe it is the noblest office or calling in the world”. What an amazing responsibility we have been entrusted with as Mothers. To nurture, teach, love and protect our children as they grow under our tutelage. You may be familiar with a story told by Phillip Allred in Meridian Magazine about a young college student who was helping measure range damage after a wildfire raged across the prairie. As he walked across the blackened earth he noticed small mounds smoldering in the debris. Puzzled, he inquired of a more experienced range manager what they were. The veteran replied that he had seen this phenomenon on a few occasions and suggested that the student turn over one of the mounds. To his astonishment several sage grouse chicks ran out from under it. “How incredible,” he thought, “that these little chicks had known to find and run underneath this mysterious shelter.” In asking what the mound was and how the chicks knew to take shelter there; he was taken back to hear that the smoldering heap was the remains of their mother. When there is danger, the mother hen instinctively calls out to her young and stretches her wings for them to run and find protection within her embrace. I am sure there isn’t anyone reading this who would not call out to her children in times of danger, putting her child’s safety ahead of her own. But what of the firestorms that rage all about us now, invisible though they are, but deadly just the same. Have we educated ourselves as mothers to know what the dangers are, where the storms rage and how close our children are to these paths of destruction? I encourage each of us as mothers to be aware of our children and what challenges face them as they leave the security of our homes each day. We need to make sure that we take the time to talk with them as they come and go, hear about their day and what is on their mind. As we spend time with our children we come to know them and understand their needs and the challenges that face them. The first ten minutes that a child or teenager walks through the door are so vitally important if possible in gleaning what’s on their mind and how they are feeling, even through a phone call. We can learn more in those ten minutes than even an hour later, for they are off and on to other things. As we take time to sense the teaching moments and know when to put aside our other activities - to be with them, inspire them and help them to see that which is right; as we discipline by teaching the whys and wherefores of important principles, and help them face consequences for poor choices, rather than punishment for bad actions; as we encourage more than we criticize and share feelings, frustrations, joys and sorrows, our eyes become open to their souls, and they will begin to feel of our genuine interest and love for them, as well as increase in their own knowledge and sense of self worth. By doing these things, they will know that home is a place of refuge and love and protection from the many challenges that face them each day and Mother is someone whom they can trust as their confidant and cheerleader on their path to adulthood. |
Becky with grandchildren |