I want to know what your ward did for the big day. Did the speakers talk specifically on motherhood? Were there any flashes of brilliance or cringe worthy moments? Did the Primary kids adorably scream-sing “I Often Go Walking”? Did anyone mention Heavenly Mother? Were gifts given? Was it a thing the moms are expected to keep alive?
My contribution is secondhand because my husband I were visiting friends and family in Las Vegas and their ward started at 8:30. 8:30! Mother’s Day is usually awkward for the childless Mormon anyway, so we were both down with skipping. I regretted it immediately, though, when my brother-in-law returned with his report: The Elder’s Quorum sang all three verses of Love at Home plus a bonus invented verse glorifying moms who drive their children to school and sports. My husband crooned ♫ There is beauty all around when moms stay at home ♫ for the rest of the day, and it never got less funny.
Your turn.
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Twin baby boys blessed by their grandfather, then talks from a married couple who miraculously conceived a son and then twin girls after several years of infertility treatments (cringe-worthy for my visiting teaching lady who recently lost a late-term pregnancy and is currently struggling through fertility treatment). Husband waxed effusive about his saintly mother and wife, wife talked about infertility and the joy of finally being a mother. Primary children (mostly) sang the first verse of “I Often Go Walking.” My 11-year-old son came back looking rather disgusted: “We practiced both verses!” Then an older lady in the ward talked about Eve, basing most of her talk on “Eve and the Choice Made in Eden.” Then the youth handed out petunias. I would have preferred chocolates, myself, though I guess it’s just as well they didn’t give us candy because I was fasting for the Nigerian girls. It wasn’t as bad as some Mother’s Day meetings I’ve been in. I taught youth Sunday School and then was in Young Women’s, and we didn’t discuss Mother’s Day in particular. Fine with me.
In our ward, the bishop made some brief remarks during the announcements that whether we have kids or not, we all have mothers. Whether our mothers are alive or dead, present or far-away, we can honor them today. A youth speaker spoke movingly about individual worth and a young couple spoke about family history. The primary sang some kind of “I love you, Mom” song. No gifts were given. The Elders and High Priests took over primary and the young women and any female primary and nursery workers who wanted to went to relief society. It was a nice block of meetings. No one gave any talks about saintly mothers or how a woman’s only worth is in birthing babies. I’m partial because I’m in the bishopric, but I think it was a success.
We had two young men whose talks were heartfelt and good, even if they mostly were stereotypical.
The closing speaker was a mother of six who talked about how much she hated Mother’s Day as a teenage wife who lost her baby two weeks before her first Mother’s Day, how she is grateful the Church teaches that the best she can do is enough (especially when she has her “Crazy Mom” days), and lots of other stuff that was profound, tear-inducing and very funny. She talked about long periods of chaos interspersed with moments of wonder and gave some hilarious examples of things with her kids that tried her sanity.
It was one of the best Mother’s Day talks I’ve ever heard.
We had three grown sons of long-time ward members come back to the ward and talk. One gave a pretty funny talk about the many times his mom embarrassed him. One talked about how when he was young he wanted to take his mom to Christ when the second coming came and looking back he can see his mother has been taking him to Christ since he was born. One talked about the many women in the ward who taught him things as he was growing up. I had never met any of the speakers as they all live in other places now but it was clear there was a lot of affection between them and the members who had known them as children. It all felt very communal and loving. A good meeting.
In my YSA ward, Faith of Our Fathers was the intermediate hymn.
We had a talk that was so bad I started writing down snippets just to memorialize them forever. The speaker was a guy in his early thirties, graduated from BYU, etc. (the later talk by the 70 year old man, on the other hand, was fabulous) The talk quickly descended into a quick hit-list of all the things NOT to say in a Mother’s Day talk. Please enjoy:
“Women today are pressured not to be mothers and to achieve professional goals instead.”
“Every woman is capable of being a mother.”
“We need to allow women to have outlets. I babysit the kids so my wife can go to the gym. If we allow women to have an outlet, they will be happier.”
“Let them have fun – both in service and in the home.”
“Motherhood is preparatory to becoming like Jesus.”
“Not every mother has a child – every mother can serve and have the same influence on others.”
“I hope every woman here steps up to the challenge of becoming a mother.”
“I’m going to change a few words of this scripture in Moses to show how it applies to mothers. Behold, this is your work and your glory, to bring about the eternal life of your children.”
There was so much more, but I couldn’t type fast enough to get it all down. The only thing that was missing was that women who don’t have kids in this life get to have babies in the next. If he had gotten that one, my Mother’s Day talk BINGO card would have been full. Because I am the type of person who loves controversy, laughing audibly during Sacrament meeting, and making my own mother angry at me for being obnoxious during church, it was pretty much the ideal talk that could have been given to make my day.
We have church on Fridays, so the pre-Mother’s Day sacrament meeting had talks about mothers. But the bishopric said we’d get our “celebration” next Friday, post-Mother’s Day. Word on the street is that we’re getting out of 3rd-block callings to eat ice cream (or possibly fruit) together, while the men have the kids make sack lunches during Primary so we can eke out a few more hours of alone time after church. We’ll see what actually happens.
I loved Mother’s Day in our ward. The Primary President, YW President and the RS President all spoke. The talked about 1. Women who influence them. 2. Heavenly Mother and, 3. Our Foremothers.
In Relief Society we sang ‘I Have Work Enough to Do” and then the men served us a light lunch.
We had a youth speaker bear her testimony, then two members shared their conversion stories. The primary kids sang the rest hymn, but I have no clue which because it was inaudible (all the screamers must have moved or turned into deacons and beehives). At the end of the meeting the young men passed out plastic cups with flowers planted in each. As the YM leader, I instructed the boys to make sure their mom’s got a cup, then that every adult woman got one. If someone turned down the gift, they were to move on. I also told the boys to not distribute flowers/plants to the young women. After the meeting we took some to the primary to make sure none of the sisters had been missed in the rush to get to sharing time. The few plants that were left went into RS in the third hour.
In my midsingles ward we had two women speak about mothers. In principle I think it’s a terrible idea to have talks about mothers on Mother’s Day (especially when they get too worshipful) and particularly in these older singles’ wards where 1) many of the women there realize they probably will not achieve their desires be mothers in this life and 2) many of the ward members are newly motherless. It’s a recipe for an extra helping of Mother’s Day pain. As it happened the two speakers were very good, crazy articulate and insightful, with only a couple of cringe moments in one of the talks (an equating of motherhood with priesthood and holding Rebecca’s deception of Isaac up as a demonstration of mothers’ righteousness and divine power). But overall very very good. One of the speakers talked about being a YW leader and “mothering” homeless girls who attended her ward–wow, it made me want to be better. It was real and full of humor and heart. I wondered if the bishopric had people audition their talks to get two excellent ones or if they just got lucky/inspired. It could have (and has in the past) gone badly and I have ward friends who don’t come to church on Mother’s Day to avoid the pain.
A young man gave a short talk about his mom, and the Primary kids sang, always a heartwarmer. The stake R.S. president gave a talk about the upcoming stake service day in June, and it was touching and inspiring. She prefaced her remarks with a some comments honoring Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel as recorded in Luke. It was lovely but a bit backhanded since that wasn’t her assignment. I was surprised that the anchor speaker gave a talk on the priesthood, and we sang “Our Father By Whose Name.” The Sunday school served cheesecake to all women during the final 30 minutes of the block, so nice to visit with other ladies in the ward. I had the thought, they’ll never make every woman happy . . . but the capstone was a Skype with my missionary son who is serving in Japan, and I’m very grateful for that.
It is an increasingly tough day for me. My three kids are all grown, in various stages, and I love them to the beyonds of course. But as I get older, I find it so easy to look back with regret at missed opportunities and mis-takes and mis-fires and, well, just missing the chaos and action. All I want is to go back, go back, do it again, do it better. The day has become difficult. Thank heaven for the Atonement.
Although we did have the Primary kids sing and flowers of some sort were given out at the doors at the conclusion of the service, the talks were not on motherhood, which, given all the potential landmines, was probably a good thing. In a perfect world my wife would have preferred chocolate to a flower, but all in all it went fine.
As we were getting ready for church I told my wife that she was a good mother and she said “Yes, I set the tone for our family. And the tone is yelling.”
I think ours turned out fairly well – though I might be a little biased since I was responsible for the program.
Sacrament meeting had three speakers with the Beehive who spoke first really hitting all kinds of great insights including quoting Sheri Dew on the point that Eve was called the mother of all living even before she ever bore a child. She focused on recognizing that motherhood is about the divine influence women have in the world and not solely the experience of those who give birth to children. The other two speakers, both men, focused on mothers from the scriptures. One examined the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus and especially ways in which He honored His mother. The other examined the experiences of Eve, Sarai / Sarah and Hannah while also exploring how many women / parents in the scriptures struggled with infertility. It was a very touching talk. Our Bishop took a few minutes at the end to share his feelings on how mother’s day can be a difficult time for some and that not all have perfect experiences with their mothers, as mothers, or due to not having the opportunity to bear children in spite of the desire. He pointed to Mothers Day as a time to recognize the contributions women of all stripes make to the Ward and the community and to recognize the sacrifices our own mothers made even if they were far from perfect.
The Primary sang two songs with gusto that brought smiles to all the faces in the congregation.
The amusing part for me was when my 4 year old, who is the biggest challenge among our 5 girls on the pew, accepted my invitation to come sit on the stand. I didn’t realize that the other counselor had his son, same age, on the stand with him as well and the Bishop leaned over to me and whispered that he felt like he was being left out of the “Bring your child to Bishopric day on the stand and maybe he should go gather his 3 year old.
The YW taught the Junior primary classes and the YM took over singing time with the Senior primary during 3rd hour and this enabled all of the sisters to join together for Relief Society where a nice luncheon that included delicious chicken salad sandwiches – I know because my wife gave me hers – was provided along with the lesson. At the end of 3rd hour the Bishopric had a few young men hand out bags of Dove chocolate to all of the women.
We had three youth speakers, all of whom tried to one-up each other on how badly they could embarrass their moms from the pulpit. I think I heard the word gospel twice and Jesus once.
So, pretty average.
Youth speakers, I’m told. I wasn’t there–we have late church (1pm), which is in the middle of our youngest child’s naptime, so we alternate weeks with Sacrament meeting attendance. This week was my wife’s turn to go.
Our ward always holds a big RS VT conference on Mother’s Day. All of the men in the ward take over all of the callings in the ward for the 3rd hour, so that every woman can attend RS, where they talk about the ward’s VT program, upcoming changes to it, air grievances, etc…and eat fancy cookies, waffles, chocolates, cakes, etc…
It’s basically a big party.
The first talk was supposed to be given by an older woman in the ward, but she was so terrified of public speaking that her daughter volunteered to give the talk for her. So the daughter read the mother’s talk in front of the congregation and added a few thoughts of her own. First of all, you’re allowed to DO that?? I had never thought that giving a talk by proxy was an option. Is it considered a cop-out? Then the primary kids sang a couple obscure songs about mothers that I know for a fact they had just learned the week before. There were about 5 kids out of 50 that actually tried to sing, and it mostly sounded like piano solo from where I was sitting in the back.
Then a former bishop spoke, mostly about his perfect mother, but he did throw in a Heavenly Mother reference at the end. The guy who gave the closing prayer made a valiant effort to let all the women who weren’t/couldn’t be/not the “typical” mothers know that they were still loved and valued.
After Sacrament meeting, we were delighted to find out that the elders had been setting up an elaborate luncheon in the gym secretly during the meeting, and all adult women in the ward were invited to eat and socialize for the rest of the block. It was announced that the block would be over as soon as the women were finished. It was a gourmet 3-course meal complete with an exotic cheese-tasting table set up in one corner, all served to us by the men. I didn’t have to teach my primary lesson, and even better, we got out of church early! Best Mother’s Day of my life. Sorry to all those people whose wards gave them a flower:/
Primary kids sang “Mother, I Love You.” All adult women got See’s chocolates. And I mentioned Heavenly Mother in my RS lesson on the history of Mother’s Day which was a hoot. Lots of laughter, lots of engagement and fun reactions, and a lovely older and wiser sister in the front row who pointed out that the amazing suffragettes were behind Mother’s Day (which I had just pointed out was a day for peace and a protest against war) and that it had lost its way somewhere, but that feminism was always a part of it. Also, another sister pointed out that her mother had skipped church every MD for 20 years because it was just so hard to hear about all the perfect mothers and feel she was inadequate.
We talked about the fact that we love our imperfect mothers, and as women, that’s what makes them most worth loving. I read my 11 YO daughter’s awesome homemade card and bookmark that included a poem in which I was described as “handy.” I asked her why I was handy. She said because the other rhyme that was offered was “panty” and she didn’t want to use that in a Mother’s Day poem.
Youth talk on having a happy family + YM singing “We’ll bring the world his truth” + two adult talks on the importance of family history and genealogy.
At the end, the Young Men passed out cellophane bags filled with a candy bar + this new “My Family” booklet/pamphlet (https://familysearch.org/campaign/myfamily). Super motherful.
The YM and EQ took over for primary and nursery during the 3rd hour during a big combined RS lesson on how women don’t need the priesthood because they’re awesome already. Chaos ensued.
Some particularly cringe-worthy sacrament talks, I was wishing I’d come prepared with a laptop or a bingo card, but then I remembered that I have small children. So I just enjoyed the many opportunities to share eye-rolls across the bench at my husband. Most note-worthy was a talk decrying the evils of babysitters, day care, television, and raising voices at children – habits I know are shared (at least in part) by every single young mother in my ward, myself included. That same talk emphasized the speaker’s mother who, with the exception of two or three special occasions, was always home when school got out. “She was ALWAYS there for us. Always. She never felt the need to go out and do anything selfish for herself, not ever. Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that what motherhood should be all about?” Hoo boy.
Relief society made up for it though, the RSP talked about knowing who we are as women and striving to be our best selves whether that means pursuing motherhood, career, or anything else. Talked about unity among sisters and loving and accepting ourselves and each other *because* of, rather than *despite*, our differences. Then we received roses and chocolate truffles. For a couple of years, they gave us CDs full inspirational music, which I always really enjoyed.
We had a youth speaker talk about going to the Temple with his mother to do baptisms and how he wants o go every week. She (his mother) had asked me the previous week if I had any male names that needed baptisms done for this purpose, as I do a lot of family history. Our RS president spoke. She said she as not going to speak on motherhood as she recognized that was a painful subject for some, so she gave an excellent talk on the joys of womanhood (including a really cute story of a camel who wanted to be a ballerina). The Primary sang a Mothers’ Day medley and our final speaker, a member of the Bishopric, did mention Heavenly Mother in his talk. We got chocolates. A lot of us missed Sunday school so we could have choir practice. The last time the Stake Presidency visited our Ward and the choir sang, they liked us so much, they asked us to sing the opening, intermediate and closing hymns for Stake Conference next Sunday. I like the idea of the luncheon. I think I will mention it to the powers that be for next year.
Returned missionary and high council speaker, and they did not talk about mothers. Geraniums for the gift. Geranium foliage smells so bad to me, but even so it is a huge improvement over the years when they gave bookmarks or inspirational pamphlets. Those went right into the trash can in the foyer. Barf.
Only two resident mothers in our YSA branch (wives of the branch presidency) and four visiting mothers (daughters of branch presidency) so the meeting was about the gospel, mostly. Although one speaker, who admitted afterwards that she gets really nervous speaking in front of a group, said she was glad that Heavenly Father didn’t seem to get tired of hearing “your same s**t” over and over again. That made for a memorable Mother’s Day talk!
In our sacrament meeting there were 2 speakers. One man spoke about Mary, and all the choices she made, and how we can all learn from her. The second speaker gave a thoughtful talk, mostly about how our mothers and how their “fingerprints” are all over us. Afterward they gave each woman chocolates (great!). The priesthood,, YM, and YW take over all of the women’s callings for the day, and the women go to Sunday school. Then during the third hour, the women all get a luncheon (put on by the RS presidency & RS activities committee), and a marvelous talk about motherhood (about why it stresses us out, about why we shouldn’t judge ourselves and each other, about how the “fruits” of our mothering is not our children, but the growth and learning of ourselves). This was given by Emily Watts, who was visiting for the weekend, so it was a wonderful chance for all of us to hear her. I have to admit that I am prejudiced, because I arranged for her to talk, but it was still excellent.
My daughter was one of eight youth speakers during sacrament meeting. Each speaker was assigned a different aspect on the influences of mothers (i.e., teaching service, preparing for future family, gaining a testimony, etc.). There was a double quartet of YM/YW who sang a medley for a musical number. The Primary children sang at the end of the meeting. I loved the meeting.
As mentioned by a number of others above, the men of the ward took over nearly every calling held by women. The bishop gave a great lesson in RS on womanhood. He ended about 15 minutes early and then there was a buffet of Sweet Tooth Fairy cookies and cupcakes. I also was given a chocolate bar provided by the Primary.
Yesterday, I heard one of the best sacrament meeting talks in my life. A single sister (never married, no kids) in her late 30’s spoke about “nurturing” and how we are all nurturers–women, men, young men, young women–that it isn’t just an adjective owned by women/mothers, but that it is a characteristic of Christ.
She also talked about how hard it is to be a single person in this church. She is a very reserved, shy person, and I was so impressed with how open and honest she was. She recounted how 3 Sundays ago she awoke, not wanting to come to church at all, because she felt she didn’t belong. But she forced herself to come, and that day the talks were all based on Uchtdorf’s October 2013 address, “Come, Join with Us.”
I hardly know this sister, b/c she’s been in Primary the whole time she’s been in our ward. Can’t wait to get to know her better!
Three excellent talks by three men on the qualities of meekness and love. (“Don’t ask women to speak on Mother’s Day!”) No pandering to the pedestal. When the meeting let out, all the adult women were accorded the courtesy of leaving first, where there was a spread of chocolates, cookies, flowers, etc laid out for them to choose from as a token of thanks.
Most unique and appropriate Mother’s Day sacrament meeting I’ve ever been to.
No gifts. 3 speakers: one about Hannah, the mother of Samuel; one about Mary, the mother of Jesus; and one generic talk that touched on the ”highest, holiest calling” bit. One person mentioned Heavenly Mother. I chose ”Oh my father” as the opening hymn because it includes Heavenly Mother. I chose ”Oh, what songs of the heart” for the closing song because it mentions meeting our heavenly parents.
I’m 41 and unmarried, childless, and I find it pretty difficult to be in a family ward sometimes. A confession… I never really had an overwhelming urge to have kids (can I be an LDS woman and say that?). So the awkwardness comes more from pitying glances and talks about how I’ll be a mother “someday, if not in this life”, than feeling sad over not having kids of my own. That being said, I love my mother and the mother figures in my life, and without sarcasm say that it really is the most difficult job in the world. I have 22 nieces and nephews and I love them to distraction and honestly can’t get enough of them… they’re really the best thing that ever happened to me… but I’m happy to send them home at the end of the day.
So on Sunday, my parents (in the same ward) spoke in church on Sunday and did an awesome job. They have children with children, a daughter who is a single mom, single daughter without kids, and kids who are no longer active in the church. They’re non-judgmental, loving, and inclusive, and I was so proud of the talks they gave. My dad made me borderline ugly cry with the tribute he gave to his mother (and she wasn’t a saint, but pretty darn near close to one). My mom talked about having a mother heart and my dad talked about Eve… The only thing that was weird was the primary song… Quickly I’ll Obey, two verses, one for mom, one for grandma. I don’t know if there’s just a general problem with disobedience in our ward and we all needed a reminder, or if it was just the quickest, easiest thing to get all of the kids to sing (likely the latter). All the sisters in the ward got a pot of different plants… a tomato, a basil plant, and a begonia.
I am originally from Las Vegas and a member as well. Which ward do your friends go to? I might know them knowing how small the Mormon world is :)
https://lifeismuyfantastico.wordpress.com/
One sister and one brother spoke on creating a Christ-centered home (though with lots of mother stuff), and I thought they were pretty good, but I don’t have the ear for the cringe-worthy that others do. The brethren taught in primary so the sisters could all attend RS taught by the husband of the RS president (he’s always good, and from what I heard was true to form). My primary son got to color a picture for his mom of Lionel Richie with some flowers, with the words “you’re my lady” written across the top three times (awesome, whoever created that).
The bishop taught the combined YW for a few minutes and then had them slice up pies brought by the brethren. RS was dismissed 20 minutes early so they could come into the cultural hall and have a piece of pie and socialize. This has been a tradition for some years, and was the subject of an interesting ward council meeting. Usually, more pie is provided than needed, so in the past, the YM and primary children would charge in to get a piece as well. Almost the whole ward would get piece (except for the brethren). The feedback from RS was that the chaos in the cultural hall made the women not feel very special, so last year the pie was served in the RS room and the leftovers were taken home or thrown away. That resulted in some very disappointed children. So, when the bishopric asked the RS pres in ward council how she would like the pie done this year, the YW pres and Primary president spoke out strongly in favor of extra pie for the kids and YM (the YW always got some anyway) and the Primary Pres pointed out that she loved having the kids so happy on Mother’s Day and that in a way, she, as a mother, got credit for it. The brethren spoke not a word during the discussion, the missionaries began to look concerned, and the bishop finally suggested that RS be let out a little earlier and that the primary and YM get let out a minute or two late in order for the sisters to have a quiet time before the hordes arrived for the leftovers, and he personally brought extra pie. Everyone seemed happy with that arrangement.
Joanne–good on ya for doing “Oh What Songs of the Heart”! It’s so cheesy and 19th century and wonderful, and we never sing it. I hadn’t thought of it for Mother’s Day, but it’s perfect!
I’m intrigued by all these wards having the men take over for the women for all or part of the second and third hours. How about for Fathers Day the women take over the mens’ responsibilities for those hours? Ha ha! Just kidding. I wish that didn’t seem like some crazy, impossible idea. (That thought experiment had never occurred to me until about three minutes ago, but it is pretty fascinating and illustrative.)
Our ward had talks by a family (two little girls, a husband and wife) about President Uchtdorf’s talk on gratitude, which tangentially touched on gratitude for their mothers. The Bishop included a “Happy Mother’s Day!” in opening the meeting, and all the women received a CD of folk hymns on the way out of the chapel. It was pretty underplayed. I liked it.
The bishop started the meeting with a statement that he is fully aware that mothers’ day is tough for moms because they always end up feeling like they can’t measure up to the perfection that everyone seems to think they already have. He asked for forgiveness and forbearance. He means well, but I don’t think that is why many women don’t like mothers’ day.
As in the last several years, all the graduating seniors gave a talk. There are usually 4 to 10 of them; this year there were 8. They spoke about their moms and bore their testimonies. Interesting this year: three of the four young men already have mission calls.
We got professionally made cupcakes in sturdy, carryable plastic containers.
Primary sang two verses of I Often Go Walking. The second verse didn’t go too well.
Opening hymn was “Home Can Be a Heaven on Earth.” Wow, I wish that song would go away. Nothing like making everyone feel that their home does not meet expectations.
Closing hymn was “Teach Me to Walk in the Light.” Much better!
Love Gina’s idea to take over all the men’s responsibilities when it’s fathers’ day!!
Our ward was so bad on Sunday. Primary kids sang. Good. The first speaker was a woman who married late in life and never had kids. She spoke about the honoring the contributions of all women. Lovely. The the bishop spoke about what a great parent Heavenly Father is and mentioned that we have a Heavenly Mother but Heavenly Father never ever wants us to talk about her. Yikes. The second hour I tried to get my primary class (the 8-11 year old boys) to do an overly ambitious craft project while I explained what circumcision was. (you’re welcome, parents!) They arranged things so that all the women could be in Relief Society for third hour. We were supposed to end early and partake of fruit and a grody chocolate fountain (last year the chocolate seized), but the teacher asked three women to speak about various mothers — Eve, Mary, Lucy Mack Smith — and made the mistake of asking the bishop’s wife to speak about her role as mother of the ward. Instead of two minutes, she rambled for ten minutes about her husband and children, never addressing the prompt and frequently saying, “I don’t know what you want to know.” That pushed us over time, and I had to leave before the song to pick up my son from the nursery. Great day!
To Gina and others wondering about women taking over for the men on Father’s Day. We do in our ward. Sisters fill in for the men who teach in primary and nursery. That way all the men can go to priesthood. The YM are included in the men’s celebration just as the YW are included in the women’s in our ward. I suspect your wondering had to do with women teaching the YM, but that doesn’t happen just as the men don’t teach the YW – instead they are combined with the adults for a special meeting.
Mily – I laughed a hearty “HA!” at you explaining circumcision during a Primary craft project.
I’m pleased and encouraged by the overall number of commenters who had a positive, enlightening experience at church this past Sunday. There are some great ideas in here, too, in the unlikely event that I’m ever asked to speak on Mother’s Day. (I especially love the idea in Corrina’s comment that nurturing is a characteristic of Christ that we should therefore all try to emulate – not just mothers.)
Thanks for sharing.
the first speaker was fabulous. It was me!a lot of people said they liked my talk. I hope that’s true because I gave it a lot of thought. I know mothers day can be a loaded topic for many.I told them interesting stories about my mom, grandma, and mother-in-law. Then some stories about wonderful women of the Scriptures. My message was to all of us as children, that we can honor our mothers for all of their qualities both good and bad. And that we owe a great debt to the women of the church. I did mention heavenly mother briefly. I wanted to mention her but didn’t want to be provocative, so I kept it short. We got little bags of chocolate.the primary kids sang. went home for lunch of bacon prepared by my dear husband. Then off to the high school for my daughters Mother’s Day chorus concert. Then a call from my missionary. Great day!
My son and daughter-in-law are are LDS and active in their ward & they have 2 children. I sent my daughter- in- law a Happy Mother’s Day card. I will send my son a Happy Father’s Day card. My son finally called to wish me Happy Mother’s Day at 7:30 p.m. They spent the day with his father and grandmother who are Jewish. I spent the day serving in my Christian church’s nursery and going out to lunch with friends. Does the LDS church condone ignoring a mother on Mother’s Day? If so I will stick with my Chrisian Church.