Mothers Who Know

A couple of weeks ago, Kyle was asked if we would speak in church on the topic "Families". Of course he said that we would, much to my dismay! I pondered for awhile about what I would speak on, and a talk that was given in October 2007 General Conference by Julie B Beck titled "Mother's Who Know" kept creeping into my mind. I thought long and hard if I would change the topic of "Families" into the topic "Mothers" and if that was appropriate or even if it was the approach I wanted to take. Let me go back a little bit...
I was in my first semester of school at SUU when I was introduced to this talk in an Institute class. There was a girl who sat in the very back corner of the class. She was extremely quiet and didn't have any friends in the class. She never raised her hand to give an opinion or volunteer for the prayer or talking about an experience or a spiritual moment. She was just there, sometimes it wasn't even obvious if she was getting anything from the class. She was always one of the first ones in the class and one of the first ones back out. After listening to this talk in class, the teacher, Bro. Adair called on her for her opinion. He must have noticed that the talk touched her in a way, unlike any other talk had, because the look on her face read shock and embarrassment. With tears filling in her eyes she said "I loved the part that reads 'Mothers who know are leaders. In equal partnership with their husbands, they lead a great and eternal organization. These mothers plan for the future of their organization. They plan for missions, temple marriages and education." She went on to say "Before I moved to Cedar City, I was in a bad place. I had bad friends and I was making bad choices. I was engaged to a guy that was no good... he wasn't a member and he treated me poorly. My mother always supported my decisions, but would constantly, lovingly remind me that I wanted to be married in the temple. I don't know if she knew it then, but I was listening. I broke off that engagement and started searching for other options. School soon became very important to me. I wanted to get a degree and make something of myself. I applied to SUU, knowing that without some kind of scholarship, I couldn't afford to go, but I was accepted. With much sorrow, I prepared to turn down the acceptance. My mom came into my room one night and sat down and said "We want you to go, we feel it is a great opportunity for you and we have been saving for this. We will pay".
That lonely girl was me... and I will forever be grateful to my parents and especially to my mother for the opportunity I was given to move from home and eventually meet my eternal companion. If you are not familiar with this talk, please take the time to read it.
http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0%2C5232%2C23-1-775-27%2C00.html
I did give my talk on mothers and I was lucky enough to have my mother there with me (she came to watch Jax since he is quite the talker during church). I now feel I have direction in my life as far as being a mother is concerned. I am excited for the future, I feel confident and successful about the past. I am so lucky to have been blessed with a "Mother who knew".