Motherhood

 

“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 

 

Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!

I am so weary of toil and of tears, …

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,

Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you! …

Over my heart, in the days that are flown,

No love like mother-love ever has shone; …

None like a mother can charm away pain

From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.

Slumber’s soft calms o’er my heavy lids creep;

Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep!

~Elizabeth Ackers Allen

 

"Perhaps the reason we respond so universally to our mothers’ love is because it typifies the love of our Savior."

~Bradley D. Foster 

 

My grandmother, Virginia, with her little sister.

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~Rajneesh

My Grandmother, Virginia (center) with some of her family.

My great-great-great-grandmother, Charlotte

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime.
~William Shakespeare

My great-great grandmother, Susan

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.  
~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

My great-grandmother, Florence (on right)

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.  ~Terri Guillemets

My mother, on right

My mother, with me

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.  ~Washington Irving

My grandmother, Faye, next to her mother, Ruth

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I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.  ~Abraham Lincoln

 

My grandmother Faye, with me.

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

With my little sister, who is also a mother

Who fed me from her gentle breast
And hushed me in her arms to rest,
And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
My Mother.
Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother.
~Ann Taylor

With my own children, who have all made me a mother many times over, including my daughter who has made me a grandmother!

The mother's heart is the child's school-room.
  ~Henry Ward Beecher

In this group, the following mothers: myself, my sister, our mother, our step-mother and my mother-in-law, as well as my daughter who was expecting her first child.

My daughter, now a mother.

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.
~George Griffith Fether 

Nothing in this life has brought me greater joy than being a mother. Nothing has taught me more patience and generosity, inspired me to learn and grow, and pushed me beyond my comfort levels.  I am forever a different, much improved person. (And still learning) 

I'm filled with gratitude for the mothers who came before; who shaped and cared for their families and paved the way for me.

Let us all cherish the mothers in our lives!