HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Today has been a beautiful Mother's Day! At church, I'm now in the nursery with the 18 month to 2 1/2 year olds, but today, all the women got to go to Relief Society to celebrate motherhood. It was such a special time for us to be together as sisters and share our stories of motherhood!

After church, Adam surprised me with the biggest Symphony bar I have ever seen in my life! AND....my favorite movie, P.S. I Love You. I can't wait to watch it again. This is the only movie that has ever brought me to tears and hysteric laughs (at different times) multiple times! I LOVE IT!!!! Adam has never seen it. I watched it with my wonderful sis-in-law and mom-in-law over Christmas break, so I'm hoping Adam enjoys it at least half as much as I do.

So, Sophie is napping right now and later we are going to my mom's for dinner to spend time with the fam and celebrate motherhood and grandmotherhood some more.

I'm so grateful on this day to be a mom and to have an amazing mom, mom-in-law, and wondeful grandmas. I am grateful for mother hearts. Julie B. Beck defines a mother heart:

What is a mother heart and how is one acquired? We learn about some of those qualities in the scriptures. To paraphrase Proverbs: “Who can find a … woman [with a mother heart]? for her price is far above rubies. … She … worketh willingly with her hands. … With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. … She stretcheth out her hand to the poor. … Strength and honour are her clothing. … She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness” (Prov. 31:10, 13, 16, 20, 25–27). A woman with a mother heart has a testimony of the restored gospel, and she teaches the principles of the gospel without equivocation. She is keeping sacred covenants made in holy temples. Her talents and skills are shared unselfishly. She gains as much education as her circumstances will allow, improving her mind and spirit with the desire to teach what she learns to the generations who follow her.

If she has children, she is a “goodly parent” (1 Ne. 1:1) who lives and teaches standards of behavior exactly in line with the teachings of living prophets. She teaches her “children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord” (D&C 68:28). Rather than listening to the voices and partial truths of the world, she knows that gospel standards are based on eternal, unchangeable truths. She believes that to be “primarily responsible for the nurture of [her] children” is a vital, dignified, and “sacred responsibilit[y]” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona, Oct. 1998, 24; Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). To nurture and feed them physically is as much an honor as to nurture and feed them spiritually. She is “not weary in well-doing” and delights to serve her family, because she knows that “out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33). (end quote).