The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.

I will have to admit that this day was not as important to me when I was younger. Yes- I did love making the breakfast for my own Mommy, but I didn't really truly understand how much she deserved and still does deserve this day! So this post is my tribute to my mother, the most beautiful woman I know.

She has been a wonderful Mother, Leader, and most importantly a Friend. I wish I had learned the last one much sooner in my life. She has always been there when I needed her, whether I wanted her there or not. She has taught me so many wonderful things by example. How to practice patience when it seems impossible. How to care for children. How to, as it seemed to me when I was younger, do it all with a smile; when I am sure that some days she felt like breaking down. I took for granted the home cooked meals, that yes- actually tasted great! She was home when we came home, how amazing is that! I cannot even begin to fathom what she had to give up for us. She is such a beautiful woman and I know that being a Mommy has only enhanced this beauty. The scripture from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 reminds me greatly of what I see inside her heart.

4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends;

That is my Mother! I sure hope that myself and my siblings were able to give my Mom what I hope are some beautiful memories in place of some of the things she may have missed out on while raising us.

Perhaps memories of tiny fingerprints on dishwashers. Eager little hands picking dandelions for her. Capturing bugs with bright big eyes. Leaning over to be held by her because she was the one we wanted. Reading bedtime stories to her in a language even a Mommy can barely understand! And then as we grew older- playing baseball games and soccer games and scoring a goal or actually hitting the ball in baseball... at least that was the case for me. Going to school for the very first time. Graduating. And for me getting married and having two beautiful little grandsons!

I wish I could speak more eloquently regarding my feelings of gratitude to my Mother. I did find a quote from a talk that I really like by President Thomas S. Monson, its from "Behold Thy Mother".

"Who can probe a mother’s love? Who can comprehend in its entirety the lofty role of a mother? With perfect trust in God, she walks, her hand in His, into the valley of the shadow of death, that you and I might come forth into light.

The holiest words my tongue can frame,

The noblest thoughts my soul can claim,

Unworthy are to praise the name More precious than all other.

An infant, when her love first came,

A man, I find it still the same,

Reverently I breathe her name,

The blessed name of mother."

It makes me so excited to think that I am eternally sealed to my Mom. I am so glad now that I've grown up (purely objective of course!) and gotten at least slightly smarter, that I have such a good friend that I didn't know I had.