19th Day of Christmas - Ruth

Introducing...my mom RUTH
I'm teaching a lesson in Sunday School today about family responsibilities. While preparing for this particular lesson, I researched and studied the righteous responsibilities of a father and the nurturing responsibilities of a mother. Everything that I read about mothering reminded me of my own mother. Since I did a blog post this summer about my dad (you can read that HERE), I wanted to write this blog post about my mom.

My mom's greatest calling in life has been the same as her favorite job ever: being a stay-home mom. She loved being able to stay home and take care of us children. She loved having the opportunity to nurture us and raise us and teach us. She is so patient and soft-spoken; she never yelled and she never spanked. I never heard her complain about us children, and she showed us nothing but kindness and love.

My mom has two main personality traits: serving others and worrying about others. My mom is the most selfless, giving, generous, charitable woman that I know. Her entire life has been dedicated to serving others, and she is the happiest when she's giving of herself. She is loving, kind, and sweet. She never says a bad word about anyone, she never cusses, she never acts like anything other than a lady. She is spiritual, faithful, and always remembers to give thanks to Heavenly Father. She pours her heart out in daily prayer, and is a very righteous follower of Jesus Christ. She is a perfect example to me, and I know that I will never be the mother to my children that my mom was to me.

My mom is so good at taking care of others, and has helped all of us kids when we were sick or recovered from surgeries. She used to rub my back when I was a child and I had the flu in the middle of the night, puking in the toilet. Even now, whenever I'm sick, I always wish she could magically appear at my side to help me and comfort me. I'm not half the care-giver for my husband and kids that she is!

My mom writes hand-written letters and sends awesome care packages. I got lots of mail from her when I went to college, and I appreciated knowing what was going on back at home in my absence. Every member of my family always gets birthday cards on time from her--I don't know how she remembers them all (I only remember after the fact and constantly send my siblings belated cards), but I always feel special to receive one of her hand-written cards, because I know that she's been thinking of me. My boys receive lots of letters and packages from her, and they look forward to finding new ways to break into the superbly wrapped and taped packages!

My mom is organized and likes to have her family surround her. She likes to have fun things for the grandkids to do when we all get together, and I appreciate her hard work and effort in cooking for so many people, having activities for the kids to keep busy, and for cleaning up before and after us. She silently works and works and works. Even though I'm a grown woman and a mother myself, I love going home and feel like I'm taken care of by my mom.

I love my mom so much, and I'm blessed and lucky to have her. She's devoted her life to serving the Savior, her husband, her children, and her grandchildren. I'm so grateful for the example she is to me, and I constantly strive to be more like her!