M-O-M. The three letter word with an ever so important meaning. What could it stand for? Perhaps a proper acronym for M.O.M would be Magnificently Outstanding Mother. With Mother’s Day fast approaching it has been a reflective time for me—especially because this will be my first Mother’s Day as a M.O.M. Something I have been waiting for, well, since before I was born.

I am a dedicated member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes mistakenly called the “Mormon Church”) and as such it is my witness that every man and woman, girl and boy, lived before we came here to earth with the knowledge that we can become like our Heavenly Father—including the great blessing that one day we would be able to have children of our own. We were each in the presence of our Heavenly Father when He presented His glorious plan of salvation. We embraced His every word. We respected, loved, and honored Him–and as such we rejoiced and even “shouted for joy” (Holy Bible: Job 38:7) in the plan that would enable us to be parents. After all, what child doesn’t want to grow up to be just like Mom and Dad? So now, here I am with a precious little boy who was born with so much potential–and it is my job to know how to raise Him. Except I have one little problem… I am clueless! Thank goodness I have truly Magnificently Outstanding Mothers whom I can look up to and learn from.

Learning from Women of the Bible

There are many women from the Bible who can teach us how to be great M.O.M.’s and through whom we can grasp the sacredness of motherhood. For example, how can we apply the lessons of Jochebed, the mother of Moses, who had full trust in God as she courageously put her baby in a basket in the river in order to save him from Pharaoh (Exodus 2:1–9; 3:1–10; 6:20)? What can we do to make our homes like that of Eunice’s, who taught her son Timothy from the Holy Scriptures since he was a child—enabling him to be “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14-15)? Or what can we learn of patience in the Lord’s timing by Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:7), and Sarah, mother of Isaac (Genesis 18) who both were “well stricken” in years before they were able to bare children? Of course there are many more mothers from the Bible that we can learn from. But let’s, for just a moment, focus on Eve, who was called the “mother of all living” before she ever carried a child.

What can we learn from Mother Eve?

Eve is not just some fictitious character. She was real. She is real. She was chosen and foreordained (chosen before her mortal life), to come to the earth as the “mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). Indeed she is special. Mormons believe that Eve is a woman to be revered and honored in the highest regard. The late President James E. Faust (1st Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ) said this of Mother Eve:

We all owe a great debt of gratitude to Eve. In the Garden of Eden, she and Adam were instructed not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, they were also reminded, “Thou mayest choose for thyself.”The choice was really between a continuation of their comfortable existence in Eden, where they would never progress, or a momentous exit into mortality with its opposites: pain, trials, and physical death in contrast to joy, growth, and the potential for eternal life. In contemplating this choice, we are told, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, … and a tree to be desired to make her wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband with her, and he did eat.”  And thus began their earthly probation and parenthood.

After the choice was made, Adam voiced this grateful expression: “Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.”   

Eve made an even greater statement of visionary wisdom after leaving the Garden of Eden: “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” If it hadn’t been for Eve, none of us would be here (“What It Means to be a Daughter of God,” Ensign, Nov. 1999).

What would it be like to be living in a state of complete innocence? Nothing to worry about? No pains, illnesses, sorrows? But yet, she knew there was more to life than just existing in a state of bliss. She knew she had to press forward with a steadfast faith in Jesus Christ (2 Nephi 31:20), putting herself, Adam, and all of her posterity (all of us!) in a situation that would inevitably cause suffering. But why? We learn the invaluable lesson from a scripture verse in the Book of Mormon, “And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin (see 2 Nephi 2:23.)”  Eve intentionally chose to partake of the fruit so that we could live, experience, grow, develop, and enjoy all of the blessings that our Heavenly Father desires to bestow upon us. She chose the “hard” route because she knew that it would bring true and lasting joy for all of her posterity. What a glorious woman to honor on Mother’s Day.

Learning from my own M.O.M.

Each Mother’s Day I am blessed to reflect on the lessons I have learned from my own M.O.M. She is successful in every aspect of her life—but her highest greatest successes come from being a disciple of Jesus Christ, a wife, and a mother.

I look at her in awe as I realize the hard choices she made in order to be the best mother that she could be, and in so doing enable her posterity to grow and develop in the way the Lord desired. One of the many hard choices she made was that as a young mother she was offered a position in the world-wide multi-billion dollar company she worked for to be a vice president over her entire department. Needless to say, her time at home would have been diminished substantially. I will eternally be grateful that she chose the road less traveled. She humbly chose to keep her position that allowed her to be at home more often so that she could mother us children. She willingly chose the life that was less “glamorous” according to the standards of the world. She courageously chose not to have a paycheck that would allow ritzy cars, fancy dining, etc. She triumphantly chose a lifestyle that would allow her to fulfill her sacred responsibility as a wife and mother. The money she would have earned during those years would have come and gone, but the memories we made will last forever.

I can say like the young Stripling Warriors from the Book of Mormon, who fought for everything that is holy, that I “do not doubt because [my mother] knew it” (Alma 56:48).

My role as a mother is sacred

Indeed this Mother’s Day, my first as a M.O.M., will be a special one for me. I look at my precious son and gaze into the future with a deep desire to do what is right. I have chosen to give my life to teach and rear him in righteousness. I know that he, like every other baby born into mortality, is a child of God—and I will do my part to teach him what that means. I am ever so grateful that I can look towards the past and observe the now in order that I might be able to be the M.O.M. that my own children desperately need me to be.

For those of you who have lost your mothers, my heart aches for you on this lonely day. Lift your chin up and trust in God that you will see her again. And to those of you who so desperately desire to be mothers but have not yet had the opportunity, take solace from the words of a Mormon apostle who said, “As prophets have repeatedly taught from this pulpit, ultimately “no blessing shall be withheld” from the faithful, even if those blessings do not come immediately” (Jeffrey R. Holland, “Because She is a Mother,” Ensign, May 1997).

I know these things to be true and invite you to learn more about the sacredness of motherhood, fatherhood, and how families can be together forever by meeting with Mormon missionaries and by studying the scriptures. I witness that we do have a loving Heavenly Father who “gave His only Begotten Son” (John 3:16), Jesus Christ, to suffer for our sins and sorrows that we might be made clean and pure as to be worthy to inherit those eternal blessings, including that of an eternal family.