You’re at your wit’s end—your son poured flour all over the living room furniture and your baby has been crying nonstop. You think back to just a few years before the kid chaos. It was just you and your husband, both working full-time. You made enough to go out to dinner sometimes and take short vacations. Now finances are tight, and each day is filled with toys to put away and noses to wipe; dinners to make and work to squeeze in. But the memories that come to your mind remind you that this is only a moment among many happy others: holding your baby in your arms for the first time; seeing your kids’ smiles as you chase them in the backyard; and watching your toddler fall asleep as you read him a story. Motherhood is hard—there’s no doubt about it. But it’s also the best choice you could have made for your life. You might say that the satisfaction you feel about being a mother is divine. In fact, motherhood is a Godgiven gift. It’s the “highest, holiest service . . . given to mankind.” “Mothers are endowed with a love that is unlike any other love on the face of the earth.” –Marjorie Pay Hinckley Your children are also the children of God whom he has entrusted to your care. Your hands substitute for God’s as you clean your child’s sticky hands or change impossibly full diapers. Your words of love and wisdom guide your child through rough patches, instilling in him or her the confidence to succeed. The teachings a parent once taught you become the lessons your son or daughter will teach to their children. Being a mother is so much more than biology. It’s a heavenly job position created by God before this life. In heaven, all of us who live now and all who have ever lived on earth abided with God as his spirit sons and daughters. God had a plan that would allow every spirit to come to earth, gain a body, and grow through their experiences, eventually dying and returning to Him again. “There is no greater good in all the world than motherhood. The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation.” –James E. Faust God chose mothers to bear the responsibility of giving his children bodies through the miraculous process of pregnancy and birth. Being a mother means participating in the miracle that is God’s work. Thomas S. Monson, a modern-day prophet, said, “One cannot remember mother and forget God. Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one.” (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1973/10/behold-thy-mother? lang=eng&query=mother) “There are few things more powerful than the prayers of a righteous mother.” –Boyd K. Packer Whenever being a mother seems like more than your patience can handle, you have the right to seek God’s relief. When you go to God for help, apostle Jeffrey R. Holland explained, “[a] door is thrown open to provide you the influence and help of all eternity. Claim the promises of the Savior of the world. Ask
for the healing balm of the Atonement for whatever may be troubling you or your children. Know that in faith things will be made right . . . because of you.” “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” –Abraham Lincoln The lessons you teach your children now are lessons taught to God’s children, and for that, you are nothing less than an angel.