Earlier this year I asked you how your local Easter service went. Today I’d like to ask you how your Mother’s Day service went.
I assume for the vast majority of you the topic of today’s service was actually on Mother’s Day; do we have any wards that went a different direction with their topic today? How were the talks? Any special musical numbers geared to the theme? Did they pass out a gift at the end? If so, how did they phrase it (for mothers, for all women over 18, something else?). What was the gift? Did any sisters run screaming from the chapel? Any other general impressions of the effectiveness or not of this annual attempt to honor mothers?
In my ward, the topic was indeed mothers. We had two adult men as speakers with a Primary number in between. (At first I thought it curious that we didn’t have an actual, you know, mother on the roster, but then it occurred to me that maybe the theory was we need non-mothers to honor mothers, I don’t know. Did you have any actual mothers speak today?).
My favorite moment from the talks was from our first speaker, a man who was born and raised in Japan. He talked about how when he moved here his mother back in Japan was very worried about him, because she had heard so much about gangs and how everyone has a gun over here. So she went to the Buddhist temple to pray for him. Later when he had a medical issue, she went to the Buddhist temple again to pray for him again. I loved that he was able to use a non-LDS religious practice to illustrate a mother’s love for her son.
The gift was a long-stemmed flower, which was passed out by the young men to all the adult women (the young women were given the extras in their class). (FWIW my wife strongly prefers chocolate of some kind.)
All in all, it was a fine, pretty pro forma Mother’s Day service of the kind that was probably pretty common today. Tell us about yours: any surprises? High points? Low points?
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Kevin, as I’ve been trying to tell you all day long… No women speakers so they wouldn’t have to prepare one.
Maybe if you weren’t so busy trying to overthrow the church’s gender and sexual orientation Norms you could have heard me… But I finally found a keyboard.
All youth speakers talking about their own mothers. One did talk about an aunt and the neighborly women next door. No mention of Heavenly Mother :( No gifts given except that men/youth covered all SS and Primary so that all women could attend SS and RS meetings.
Not the best Mother’s Day meeting, but not the worst.
First talk was lovely, a young mother just talked about the things she learned from her mother (gratitude, unity, etc). Not focused on motherhood, but touched it enough to satisfy anyone who wants a mother’s day program. She concluded by saying Jesus was there for all, for mothers, all women, and all men. Then we had a primary musical number. So far so good….
And then there was the second talk. I would say it was a “sh%& show” but that’s offensive to s#&% . The 30ish year old male speaker proceeded to: disparage adoption as permanently scaring children, tell a graphic story of a woman he met on his mission who was violently abused by her boyfriend before she repented and joined the church (because obviously SHE needed to repent), inform us all that a woman who doesn’t care for her children should drown herself (citing the millstone scripture), told us all how UNICEF is evil, and, gave us the following blessed quote: “Motherhood is a huge responsibility and the delicate psyche of your children lays wholly on you.” Also, righteous women are foreordained to be mothers, as righteous men are foreordained to hold the priesthood, and women who can’t have kids…maybe get to be mothers later, but also maybe aren’t righteous? I can only assume everyone was full of rage, but I do know the bishopric’s faces were priceless.
The rage I personally felt will power me through at least 3 months of boring Sunday meetings. I love Mormon mother’s day. It brings out the best and the worst.
We had talks about tithing. Gift was a nice wooden ornament celebrating the rededication of our local temple.
I’m always saddened on Mother’s Day when when we don’t talk about Heavenly Mother. It’s actually my own mother’s least favorite Sunday for this very reason. Father’s Day is usually more about Heavenly Father than earthly ones, but Mother’s Day does not follow the pattern. Lately I’ve taken to attending Catholic Mass on Mother’s Day because they at least venerate Mary, which is more of the divine feminine than I get in LDS church.
Helping the junior Primary kids make gifts and cards for their moms was sweet. My youngest sang with the Primary in Sacrament Meeting for the last time as she is almost 12.
One youth (male) and two adult speakers (one female with young kids and one male with adult children). All spoke on mothers. Two mentioned Mary, mother of Jesus. The female speaker spoke quite a bit about Mary, which I enjoyed. The male speaker spent several minutes tearfully explaining how diligently his wife had pinned together their son’s socks before he went on his mission. I didn’t quite get it as a Mother’s Day story, but I’m always losing socks so I should probably follow up with her and learn her sock hack.
No mention of Heavenly Mother.
Bishop announced the YM would hand out a gift to the moms in the foyer. We received 3 Trader Joe’s chocolate bars tied together with ribbon, which has become a tradition for about the past 5 years.
It was fine. It’s a tough topic to navigate. I think everyone is relieved when it’s over.
None of the hymns were about Heavenly Mother, but that’s because there is literally only one to choose from. Treats out the wazoo: mini bundt cakes to all mothers, and then the YW and some Primary girls scooped up the rest, then chocolate in SS, then a dessert buffet with drinks after RS–and there were Diet Cokes, REAL Diet Cokes (not the caffeine free swill). I’m feeling Verklempt.
Actually, feeling a bit queasy from all the sugar, but it could be worse.
We had a youth and member of bishopric speak regarding motherhood. The bishop gave the concluding talk about the Book of Mormon. I was surprised at that.
Two male speakers and two youth speakers on the topic of motherhood. Junior primary sang rest hymn. Senior primary sang closing hymn. Meeting ran late.
We got homemade cake balls in a little gift bag. The lady passing them out on a tray was like the cake ball nazi. I was scolded for trying to take one off the tray after the meeting, rather than waiting to have it handed to me. And scolded for trying to get another to give to my MIL in the foyer. I guess maybe they were limited in supply, or something.
During the RS hour, the priesthood had set up tables with nice tablecloths and centerpieces in the cultural hall. Then they served us 3 kinds of pie as we watched a slideshow that they had also helped make, and which consisted of family photos/kid/baby photos of the children of the moms there, secretly submitted by the dads and compiled by the priesthood. Set to sentimental music. It was nice to watch and see photos of the older kids when they were younger, and family photos of younger kids now.
When the slide show was over, we still had 30 minutes of RS time left. I was prepared for a lesson, but instead they just let us eat pie and socialize which was quite nice. The priesthood cleaned everything up.
All in all, it was the most all-out mother’s day church service I think I’ve ever had. My husband commented that it seemed a bigger doing than Christmas.
It was really nice and enjoyable, though I thought the slideshow was such that it might induce some sad and hurt feelings amongst the childless or those who had recently lost a mother. I’m not sure what the balance is between celebrating mothers and sparing the feelings of the non-moms.
We started with the Primary singing. “Mother I love you,” and “Teach me to walk in the light.” They sang the first verse, the congregation sang the second, we all sang the third verse, and I cried. Then a childless woman in the ward spoke, and spent the first several minutes addressing the fact that Mother’s Day is hard for so many people. Childless, people with lousy moms, people who feel like they’re lousy moms, people with children who have strayed or passed away, etc. The rest of her talk was good too, but she faced the day head on. After her the Priests quorum sang “Army of Helaman,” accompanied by none else than our stake president. The only one more talk by a dude, the we got our chocolate.
The RS presidency always knocks themselves out to do mothers day big. The men cover primary, we have a shortened lesson, then snacks and socializing. I was annoyed that it was fruit this year (you calling me fat??) but there were cake balls in our goodie bag. Honestly, all I want is sugar and someone to admit that this day is really conflicted for most of us.
Our mothers day service, at least the Sacrament meeting, was fantastic. I cannot speak highly enough at how well it turned out. I wasn’t holding high hopes when the opening hymn was O My Father – though it gave me the opportunity to explain to my daughter that a specific line was the whole reason we were singing what seemed like a rather ironic choice for the day. But the Bishopric went out of their way to ask the speakers to approach the topic in discussing the divine value of mothers and women with the explicit request not to talk about their own mothers and to be cognizant of how challenging mothers day can be for many.
The first speaker was a YW who discussed the impact of motherhood and how the role has an important place in the gospel.
The second talk about knocked me out of my seat because I never expected to hear it addressed in our Ward. A young mother stood and began to talk about where to find the ideal role model of divine motherhood and explained that after careful prayer and consideration she had landed upon who to focus on. And then she proceeded to address the importance of our Mother in Heaven with a very well thought out discussion of the doctrinal elements and the myths surrounding her. She pulled from extensively the LDS.org topic page on Mother in Heaven and presented background from a number of Prophets, Apostles and General Authorities (men and women on that last one). She talked about how she felt the influence and support of her Mother at challenging times in her life including when she gave birth to her children. It was possibly the best talk I have heard over a Sacrament pulpit on a Mothers day and I was effusive in my praise and gratitude to this sister afterwards.
My wife looked at me early on in the talk and asked, “Do you think this is going the direction the Bishopric was hoping when they handed out topics for the speakers?” I don’t know, I think they were pleased with how things turned out but I can appreciate why some of them might have been uncomfortable when her topic became evident.
We then had the Primary children come up and sing I Often Go Walking which is my favorite of the Mother focused children’s songs. They sang beautifully.
The last talk was given by a wonderful brother who admitted his own struggles at the idea of speaking about mothers and how he was no expert on the topic and then addressed the young men / boys in the Ward on how to think about their mothers. It was very well done with good humor and definitely brought the Spirit.
No gifts were given out to my knowledge and I didn’t even think about that until after Church. But the youth and YM took over Primary during 3rd hour so all the women could join for a light luncheon and lesson. I believe there were treats provided then.
We had a youth speaker who spoke about mothers, a 30 something male speaker who spoke about the things his mother taught him (with a reference to Heavenly Mother thrown in), a primary number where many mothers sang with the children, and then a older male speaker who also mentioned HeavenlyMother, in the context of I Am a Child of God (We are children of a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother, and they sent us here etc). His talk sort of felt like a buzz feed article “15 things you shouldn’t say to your mom on Mother’s Day”
Our gift was a copy of The Influence of Righteous Woman by Pres. Uchtdorf.
Here in the corridor, it was High Coucil Sunday.
His companion was a recently returned sister who mentioned her mom, but stayed on track for the topic of obeying the words of the prophet.
The High counselor made mention that, yes, today is Mother’s Day, but that he was also going to talk on listening to and obeying the words of the modern prophet.
The sweet primary kids sang the same Mother’s Day song I sang to my dear mother over 50 Years ago. It was nice.
The mothers received a Utah truffle. Then in Sunday school (gospel doctrine) the teacher had a basket of full size candy bars to hand out. And then in relief society they had homemade giant chocolate chip cookies. Wow. I hope Father’s Day is as nice
We had zero women speak or give lessons today. Even the RS lesson was taught by a man. While I understand the good intentions behind this, having this day framed 100% by a male perspective feels a little odd. I do acknowledge that many women indeed want a break, so this type of lineup for many sisters is a-ok.
Sacrament meeting featured nice talks from four adult sons of some of the ward’s oldest sisters. The lineup was kept a secret (No names listed on the program even) so the whole reveal caused quite a stir. The talks were largely framed as tributes. It ended up being like a miniature ward reunion.
I can’t wait until Father’s day when we women will take over all the men’s responsibilities, you know, to give them a break /
Oh, and Kneaders brownies for the sisters, so that’s a win.
Wow, I’m interested that so many of you had substantial treats or even luncheons. That’s something I’ve never experienced. Very interesting.
Young Men and Young Women spoke generally about mothers in sacrament meeting, with personal mentions of mother figures/their individual mothers here and there. Not really anything to do with the gospel, but more of a vague praise of the role of mothers. ProcFam was quoted the most, with one verse from Proverbs about women/motherhood as the single scripture of the lot. Each talk was a couple of minutes and they had like 10 speakers. Primary sang one of my favorite songs as a special musical number.
After a short (forgettable) lesson, the last 20 minutes of RS consisted of gathering together and eating cheesecake served by the young men. EQ and HP covered the Primary and Nursery, and the YW, too. I sadly chose a slice that was banana flavored (yuck), thinking it was plain and despite the sweet attempts to make sure everyone with ovaries and a uterus felt loved and included, I ended up at home in tears and feeling sorry for myself–not for the bad choice of cheesecake, mind you, but because my husband and I have been trying to conceive for over a year and today is just hard, I think, no matter what happens at church. I’m trying to rally and get the mopey tones out of my voice before I call my own mom to wish her well on her special day.
We had a PhD (19th century) history student frame his talk today around how his grandmother wasn’t really valued as a whole person by his grandfather nor her community, contributing to a spiral of debilitating choices that resulted in her early and miserable death. It was moving, and progressive, and a sharp call against inequality and patronizing behaviors. There are only a handful of “liberal” members in the ward, so it’s really nice to hear our perspectives being integrated alongside the rest.
Kevin, Mother’s Day treats are one area in the church where the advantage falls squarely on women. Men get jack for treats on Father’s Day, and that is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Also, to clarify something in my earlier post. Our ward leadership (both men and women) went to great efforts to put on a great sacrament meeting, get subs for all the sisters, and organize treats. To gripe about it seems in bad form. As women’s expectations of Mother’s Day are unique as the women themselves, you are certain not to please everyone. I’ll just say that for many of us, celebrating womanhood means actually letting them speak.
Two young men spoke then Primary sang. Adult man spoke. Two of the speakers referred to “Complicated emotions” associated with Mother’s Day. Neither of them expanded on that thought. Pretty bags filled with a variety of chocolates were handed out liberally to women by young men. I overheard a young man say, “We get the leftovers!”
High council Sunday in our ward, both speakers thanked mothers, then went on to their talks that weren’t about mothers or motherhood, which has been the standard for the past couple of years (Father’s Day hasn’t had themed talks either) and which I prefer, given the alternative of a lecture. Gift was a pamphlet, to which I strenuously object, since it’s just a lecture written down. We’ve usually gotten flowers in the past, which I love. We’ve never gotten candy.
I thought our branch did pretty well. We had a youth speaker, a girl with autism, give what I thought was a very well-organized and informative talk about family roles, based on the proclamation. There were a couple of awkward moments, such as when she said that “broken families are BAD”, but overall those could be chalked up to youth and inexperience, and she’s come a long way from previous speaking experiences. Our RS president gave a talk focused mostly on women in the Old Testament, that also was fairly inclusive (she even referred to adoptive and foster mothers), and I really enjoyed it. I’m always happy to hear talks that are substantive rather than sappy and sentimental. The Primary children sang Teach Me to Walk in the Light. The final speaker wasn’t able to show up to church today, so the branch presidency opened up the last 10 minutes to anyone who wanted to share a tribute or talk about their mother. That could have gone very badly, and indeed when a certain person who is known to be long-winded got up just as we should have been singing the closing hymn, I was frustrated–but he ended up giving a beautiful tribute to his daughter who passed away a few years ago, who had been a foster/adoptive mother and an elementary teacher. The mothers were given a handmade card a piece of chocolate from the Young Women. They did specifically ask the “mothers” to stand, which normally bugs me–I prefer it to clearly include all women–but in our case,all the women that were there were mothers, so no one was left out. I’m in primary, and the presidency did away with the normal sharing time and had the kids make “cake in a cup” for their mothers and for some of the elderly women in the branch. It was quite a project but turned out really well.
To the person who said father’s never get good treats–in the last ward I was in, the fathers always got homemade cinnamon rolls on Father’s Day, and I was jealous of that when I walked home with my limp petunia plant. I know our Primary in our branch is planning to have the children bake soft pretzels for their dads on Father’s Day.
All Sacrament speakers were women, who had been given several weeks to prepare. Covered a nice range of scriptural and contemporary examples of faithful women.
Primary kids sang.
3rd hour all adult women were off the hook, except for the lone RS instructor who taught a larger class than normal. Gift choice of oversized chocolate bar, or potted flowers. There were significantly more leftover flowers than chocolate.
We had high council speakers (a high councilman and his wife – she is a mother). They focused on the importance of families, family scripture study and FHE, so motherhood was mentioned quite a bit. No special musical numbers but for intermediate and closing congregational singing we did use the two heavenly Mother hymns: #286 and #292. (Somebody said there is only one that mentions heavenly Mother, but #286 does refer to “heavenly parents”.) There was no gift handed out.
My ward rocks. First talk a youth speaker on mothers. Second talk an adult male. Topic: Faith in Jesus Christ. Primary sang, “I’m trying to be like Jesus”. Third talk an adult male. Topic: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we got See’s chocolate bars handed out by a few young men while we were in RS.
I wanted to high five the universe after our meeting. Three youth speakers, nervous and cute, both girls cried, one surprised mom with a message from missionary sister.
Primary kids sang, short sweet and a bit showboat-y – just how I like it.
Then one dad whose wife is a badass rockstar who has been through 55 different wringers talked about how powerful she is in their home and the importance of moms influence in general.
The piece de resistance – another dad who a) referenced the Kobayashi Maru as a metaphor for the impossibility of leaving everyone happy at the end of a Mother’s Day talk, b) said ‘every Mormon is a feminist, even if you don’t think that word applies to you’, c) slammed modesty/slut-shaming culture in a classy way as he was taught by a friend’s mom, d) made everybody snort laugh with a self-deprecating childhood hijink, and e) ended by pointing us toward our Heavenly Mother and reminding us of our priesthood power as women. It was a slam dunk. Also, Symphony bars. The blue kind. It was tops.
Gifts were Chocolate Bar (high end ones too. With chunks of caramel).
Talks were all over the place as it was a missionary homecoming. Each speaker mentioned mothers just to get the topic covered. Not a single mention of HM.
Female youth speaker on keeping Sabbath holy. Then two adult women speakers with primary children singing between them. Both spoke on women in the scriptures, the first on women from the Book of Mormon and New Testament and the the second on women from the Old Testament. The two had very different tones, the first more provocative and feminist and the second much more traditional take on things. As a male I found it refreshing that all the speakers were women for a change, and having a female-centered theme (but not mother-centered) seemed like a reasonable approach. Small chocolate bar handed out to all adult women after the meeting.
Started with some youth giving testimony about seminary, then the primary sang Grandmothers and I Often Go Walking (which always reminds me of Heavenly Mother). Then a 30ish guy gave a talk that made me grimace a few times: he equated motherhood with “stay-at-home motherhood” and dwelled on this point to for quite some time. Pretty disparaging about women who work outside the home despite the occasional assurance of, “but every family has to do what is best for them”. Only quotes from men. The final speaker was an older woman in our Ward, very much a Mormon Women Stand type, so I was really bracing myself, but I didn’t need to worry. She did a good job, quoted lots of women, used the scriptures and church history and even referenced Heavenly Mother. The treat was a chocolate bar. This was probably the best Mother’s Day sacrament meeting in years.
Our bishop gave a brief talk at the end of the meeting. He graciously covered mothers,and women who wanted to be mothers but did not have the opportunity at this time. He’s a new young bishop and very kind. I just wish he had included a third group. Mothers of wild and willful children who sometimes wish they had never become mothers.
Two songs by the primary. :) One talk by a 60ish mother who started by discussing dear friends for whom Mother’s day was painful, going on to discuss how women see themselves, and the meat of the message being that we need to strive to see ourselves as our savior see us. One talk by a brother nearly 90 spoke of Eve, and Mary the mother of Jesus. Then he told the heartbreaking story of his mother who died of breast cancer when he was a small child. Then a charming and silly story of his MIL followed by a short tribute to his wife. Special musical number by two men about mothers. There was another talk that was…unmemorable? At least to me.
Conference talk in pamphlet form with a chocolate attached given to all women 18 and older. Men took over third hour and we had a short RS lesson followed by brunch, which I’m pretty sure was prepared by the RS presidency. When the men brought our children to us, they came bearing flower pens try had made.
It was a good day.
Our ward has a tradition of the high school seniors all giving talks and then we pass out this fudge that is made by one of the ward members daughters. Everyone loves it and the talks always range from weird to good. I think most everyone enjoys the Mother’s Day in our ward.
YSA ward. Three talks about the women of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and modern scripture. These YA did their own research and shared things they learned and discovered they loved about the stories of those women. A flute/piano duet of How Great Thou Art. A closing prayer asking to bless us to be able to return to our Heavenly Mother. And all the ladies in the ward were given chocolates. I think it was really rather a good Sunday.
Fascinating variety here–apparently Mother’s Day hasn’t been correlated yet.
Three talks by men. The first speaker referenced Heavenly Mother, which I thought was great. The second speaker did not, and was slightly more rambling. The third speaker, the High Councilor, made a brief reference to mothers, then moved into his HC talk. At the end, all the women got a small flowering plant. No chocolate. No musical numbers. Meh. I’ve had better, and I’ve also definitely had worse.
Regular line up of youth speaker, followed by a RS sister, and male priesthood holder batting clean up.
All talks had a mother’s day theme. Heavenly Mother was mentioned by both adult speakers. Sheri Dew quote count was 8 +/- between the two of them. Primary kids sang. Ward choir sang. treat bag handed out by members of the Bishopric had Ferrero Rocher and Lindor chocolates in them.
Mother’s day gift: this was, for me, the highlight of a very good meeting. The bishop announced the ward was giving on behalf of the women of the ward a donation to the local domestic violence organization. Best Church Mother’s Day Gift Ever. (We also got chocolate strawberries, so we were also covered on the sweets side. Yes, we do have a well-to-do ward.)
Sacrament: a great youth talk, non-Mother’s-Day-focused (I later learned she had had to reschedule her talk) on commandments and why we have them. A talk on mothers and womanhood by an older lady in the ward who can’t walk very well and is often not able to come to church, which was great, at least the parts I heard (I was herding and/or changing my toddler for much of this talk so wasn’t able to listen a ton) and sensitive to those who weren’t mothers or for whom Mother’s Day was hard. Primary sang.
I taught GD (D&C 59 – Sabbath) and we spent the first part of it talking about Heavenly Mother. I meant to bring her in more into the lesson (like: can we / how do we bring HM into the Sabbath?) but instead we ended up having what turned out to be a very interesting discussion about gratitude. EQ took Primary and Nursery (and my daughter freaked out and came to join me in RS) and the RS lesson was on testimony and mothers. The teacher was new and I think maybe not quite as sensitive to the currents around Mother’s Day, but people jumped in with comments and it was all good. I have a great ward.
I also go to a Lutheran church with my husband. They didn’t really talk too much about mothers except to have a little rose plant given to the mother of the youngest child (me; it’s an old congregation) and mother of the oldest child (said child being ~65). I mentioned to my husband that this practice might be hard for those who weren’t mothers, and he said he thought I was being over-sensitive. I think he may even be right, because it seems to me that Lutherans don’t make the big deal about motherhood either theologically or practically that the LDS do.
I’d say a triple at least, maybe not quite a homerun but a good meeting nonetheless. First speaker was a YW who did a terrific job about service and was able to tie it in to her mom, second speaker was a YM and he did fine. Third speaker was one of the older married sisters and she did great talking about how not all women get to be mothers in this life but nevertheless they play a mothers roles in others lives, which was her theme, we often times have a number of different women in our lives who have some kind of mothering role to us. The YW and a few primary girls sang the intermediate hymn. Handed out Hershey’s kisses flowers the YW made, and carnations. Overall a B+/A-.
Went to the service at a nondenominational church, where all Mother’s were invited to come up and share something they learned as mothers that helped them be more Christlike. Pastor (female) then riff ed on the experiences to encourage everyone to remember that all things point to Christ, and to remind us that whatever our struggles there is comfort available to us in the gospels of the New Testament. The meeting concluded with a report on the prison ministry program and asking people to get their pledges in for the program so plans could be made with an accurate idea of the financial support for the program.
Homemade cookies were passed out to everyone after church, just like every Sunday and the prison ministry program was selling fudge and magazine subscriptions. There was also an area in the foyer/lobby set up for anyone who wanted to take pictures with either of the two seniors, since school is out on Wednesday.
I was completely amazed by our ward. The first talk was a youth speaker on the differences between priesthood and priesthood power. The second was by an older experienced mother, and I expected it to be very traditional, but it was not. She touched on HM, how “if the eternities are simply us having billions of babies that’s no heaven I want to be part of”, “it’s mothering, not mothers”, used an example of her grandfather as one of the mothering individuals, talked about the difficulties of childbirth, and proclaimed that women are not more valuable to God after they have children. The kicker for me is that she disliked her topic: “How mothers are important to the plan of salvation”. She roasted the bishopric, with class, because we shouldn’t need to prove how important certain roles are, and that the topic should be about women and the importance of nurturing as a Christlike attribute for both women and men. Talks were 10/10. Then they had the YM and YW take care of primary so all the women could attend relief society. The lesson was on how women are often invisible, and compared invisible women to the invisible builders of the cathedrals. It was actually really very good. Then there was cheesecake, and cake for the lactose intolerant. This was presented to all women, not just mothers.
Best Mother’s Day I’ve had so far.
The young women in our ward do sacrament meeting once a year, and yesterday was the day. It was very nice. After a welcome and Happy Mothers Day from the bishop, the programsstarted with two musical numbers by the primary kids, one by the entire primary, and then one by the senior primary upon which they had been working for FIVE MONTHS (we have an ambitious primary chorister and he had them singing “If the Savior stood beside me” in parts. The kids did okay when it was just their parts, but when everything got put together, they’d all revert back to the melody, and it takes a lot of 15-minute singing times to get that worked out). Ultimately, they did great.
Talk by a YW about James 1:5. Musical number by some of the YW, a song I didn’t know. Talk by another YW about faith. “Heavenly Father Loves Me,” by one of the YW. Talk by another YW about growing and meeting potential. Musical number by the Beehive class and their advisor. Talk by the advisor about her recent experience with cancer and what it taught her about prayer. Very powerful. “As Sisters in Zion/We are Daughters” medley by YW and their advisors.
Chocolate handed out at the end of sacrament meeting and then the elders quorum took over the last hour of primary so everybody could go to relief society, where there was a big spread – muffins, quiche, fruit, bread, cheese, and those little Costco creampuff things. The YW who are graduating from high school were invited, and they introduced themselves and thanked their mothers. All in all, a nice day.
The Primary sang “I’m so glad when Mommy comes home,” the old favorite, but with a twist. I was happy about that.
Our primary children–boys and girls, sang this song:
When I grow up, I want to be a mother
And have a family.
One little, two little, three little babies of my own!
Of all the jobs, for me, I’ll choose no other.
I’ll have a family.
Four little, five little, six little babies in my home!
And I will love them all day long,
And give them cookies, and milk, and yellow balloons.
And cuddle them when things go wrong,
And read them stories and sing them pretty tunes!
When I grow up, if I can be a mother,
How happy I will be.
One little, two little, three little babies I can love!
And you will say, “Each sister and each brother
All look a lot like me.”
Four little, five little, six little blessings from above!
Just for the record, my wife HATES this song.
The variety of comments shows that for someone planning a MD sacrament meeting you are damned if you do, damned if you don’t when it comes to whether women should speak on that day. Some will be upset that there are no women’s voices if all men speak, others will be outraged that we would make a women prepare talks on MD if women speak. So far in our ward the “don’t you dare ask a woman to talk on Mother’s Day” sentiment has been more powerful and more vocal.
To Rigel Hawthorne:
What the hell kind of song is that? Never heard that one, and I’ve served in Primary, twice.
“. . . proclaimed that women are not more valuable to God after they have children.”
This is actually the crux of the whole problem with “preaching the ideal” and Mothers Day in general. People DO believe women are more valuable to God after they have children. If we could talk about these principles without conveying this message, there would be a lot less heartache.
Years ago, the family ward I attended always gave out potted marigolds on Mother’s Day. The primary children sang songs and embarrassed their mothers by pulling faces or making rabbit ears for their neighbor, or crying and pulling up their skirts to hide their faces. At least, my kids always did. This singing event meant I was obligated to attend with my children. We would come home with at least four plants, all of which would die from lack of water and sun and my kids would bemoan their fate. “You are supposed to PLANT the flowers, mom!” When the kids grew older, Mother’s Day became a Sunday that I boycotted with zeal. What single mother needs to be reminded of failure in the home?
Recently remarried, I reluctantly attended Mother’s Day the last two years. This year I would have reverted to calling it Mother’s Day Off From Church and abstaining, but my husband and I were recently asked to the position of CTR 3 Babysitters which mandates weekly attendance. Apparently our ward needs to read some of these comments about the youth and men teaching Primary so the women can attend RS and eat cheesecake. But I digress…
The dangling carrot for me showing up to the block meetings on this horror of holidays was that for the last two years our ward has given out gifts of delicious fudge from a local shop. So off we went – even 45 minutes early for choir practice – armed with a mother’s day project for our class of 9 energetic preschoolers, and a story about the Prodigal Son designed to rivet their attention and keep the lesson from disintegrating to comments about Paw Patrol.
Honestly, I don’t specifically know what the talks were about because I spent the meeting in silent protest, texting platitudes to the various women in my life, surfing Instagram, and waiting for the fudge to be handed out. There were two women who spoke about the wonderful motherly examples in their life. The young women sung a song about the love of a mother, composed by a ward member. A man spoke at length on an unrelated church doctrine topic.
Finally the meeting drew to a close and the High Priests passed out…a pamphlet? “The Influence of Righteous Women” by Dieter Uchtdorf. I attempted to walk past without getting one but the man at the door wouldn’t let me exit without a booklet in hand.
What kind of gift was this? What am I supposed to do with it now? And what happened to my fudge? I’m holding back $2.99 from my next ward donation to cover the cost of this overpriced trinket and get my own fudge. What do you bet the local Deseret Industries is flooded with these pamphlets over the next couple of months.
Lily,
Beats me what kind of song it is…I googled it and found the lyrics of the thing to copy and paste here. I first wondered why boys were singing it, but then big tent picture–why was anyone singing it at all?
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I don’t want to take up too much space (I’ve done so before), but if you’re interested, here’s our 2017.