Potted flowers and chocolate are popular gifts given to women on Mother’s Day by priesthood brothers with hopeful and pleading smiles. They are pleading with us to believe them, they really do like us. They really do appreciate us. Each one of us really are important. But there isn’t money in the ward budget for a five star restaurant and a dozen roses for each member of the Relief Society. So there they are, stuck between a nickel and womens’ wrath – women with diabetes and allergies.

Thankfully, I’ve never been asked to speak in sacrament meeting on Mother’s Day and I hope I never am. It seems like the task most likely to result in failure. People are different, so it makes sense that not every talk will be meaningful to each person, which we’re usually  very understanding of on an average Sunday. But this is Mother’s Day, the big one, in which we hope to show our appreciation and care for the people in our life that have literally given us life. How can a talk or a token gift possibly be enough?

It can’t, this one day isn’t enough. Let’s expand our view of how people and the church express their appreciation for motherhood.

Throughout the year does your family or ward have a tradition that celebrates motherhood, promotes motherhood, or makes a difference in the lives of women currently mothering?


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