Thoughts and Hope From My Dear Mother

As the passing of my dear Mother passes to the past, the things that she meant to me and the things that she taught me become more meaningful in surprising ways. Hopefully my thoughts will come together in this post and allow me to effective elaborate on this topic for your understanding.

My mother was full of love, love mostly for her family, love that was passed on to her by dear and loving parents and family. She was a decedent of apostles and prophets of the Latter-days who had recognized the fulfillment of bible prophecy in the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. These ancestors gave their all, their religious traditions, their homes, homeland, comfort and ease to join with the saints in sustaining and building the kingdom of God on the earth. So there were deep feelings supported by the spirit of truth that this work is true, that it transcends mortality, death, the resurrection, and everything we hold dear deep in our hearts. Sweet is the peace the gospel brings to seeking hearts through the still small voice and comforting spirit of truth. This peace which comes only from God is more important than anything else in the world.

Mother lived through the great depression in the United States during the late 1920's and 30's. She knew that we could not squander opportunity because it might not ever come again, we could not waste resources, food, clothing, money, time, but be grateful for all that we have and live to thank God for his bounteous mercies to us each and every day. She instilled in her children a great love for learning and education. This love for learning drove me to get 4 college degrees, (AA, B.S., M.Ed, Ed.S.) and to spend many years living and working at the university something that has blessed my life incredibly.

As her children grew up, went on missions and married in the temple, Mother assumed the role of counselor and friend not only to her new in law children, the spouses of her children, but to many more in the community who needed her encouragement and support. She was a wonderful visiting teacher and many of the sisters she visited over the years just knew that she thought they were wonderful people, and appreciated her love and encouragement.

She loved all of her grand children (this includes all great grand children with all the greats as there will be) and each held a special place in her heart. She knew what it was like to feel unloved and cared about by those around her in the community, this would not happen to her family and friends. Mother knew that love in the family circle was for every single grand child, that each belonged as a family member, and that the family is a place of acceptance, love and encouragement in the manner of happiness, the way of living that has proved to lift us to higher plateaus where more beautiful vistas can be seen of eternal possibilities. She loved not to manipulate, but to serve her family and in the process served her Heavenly Father, who makes our time on earth possible through his great plan of happiness.

She did not like to see waste of any type, especially in human divine potential, and she encouraged those around her including her children and grand children to live to achieve their divine potential as children of a living God. To live so that when our life is over we can truthfully say, I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith (2 timothy 4:7).

She believed that our path to a happy future goes through studying our history and learning from the mistakes and more importantly the successes of others. With this understanding it would be possible to chart a course through life that would avoid many of the unnecessary pitfalls and troubles. She wrote many histories that she worked on for years to make the knowledge of our ancestors available to us so that we too may be blessed by understanding our history. Mother knew that our history includes the history of our ancestors, their determination, sacrifice and faith.

So my dear mother has finished her course, fought the good fight and kept the faith. Now the baton is handed to each of us yet living to do the same. Have we taught our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Do our children understand that there is a devil who wants to make us miserable and who wants to mess up our thinking and turn our every weakness into an addiction. Do they know that we have an all powerful, all knowing, all caring and feeling Heavenly Father who loves us, who has declared that each of us is of infinite worth to him. That the Savior Jesus Christ came to redeem us from our sins, if we repent and humble ourselves before him, we can be forgiven for past misdeeds and return to full fellowship in his kingdom. That there are ordinances of the gospel that we each need to receive so that we may return to the presence of God, and that the priesthood authority to act in the name of God has been restored to the earth, that said authority is administered by living Apostles and Prophets on the earth today. This life is a time to rejoice in the opportunity that is ours to freely accept the plan of our Heavenly Father and to prepare to meet God again. We will be blessed in doing so. Mother knew all of these things and her testimony of these truths and knowledge that we are all children of God and need to prepare to return to him drove her forward in a loving and stellar way.

The last time I talked with my Mother on the phone, we were at Mikes place in El Mirage AZ, she was wondering if we were coming to see them that day, I explained that wave after wave of snow storms was pelting Utah and that there was no way to get through safely, my mother said, "what you are doing is more important, building the family there." Deep in my heart I knew what she was saying was true, that participating with Mike and Bonnie's family in Sam's baptism and having Sarah and Ted and family come down and join us for this important event, to me was a sacred family event time. We are meant to be together it feels so right, and the covenants of the temple make it possible to be together forever permanent, for all eternity.

Many times over the years, on the phone, my Mother would say that it would be nice to see you more often, I would say that the feeling was mutual, and even though we spent considerable resources making numerous cross country trips, we were always glad to be together again, but we always knew that there was a higher purpose in our living in Alabama, and in the future there would be time to visit as often as we liked and we agreed that this would be OK as a solution to the miles that separate us. As my dear mother departed for the spirit world in glory, she passed the baton on to all of her descendants to love and bless the rising generation, that they too may know that God lives, and that the Gospel has been restored in its fullness. That the Savior will return and the Kingdom of God on the Earth will be joined with the Kingdom of God in Heaven for a thousand year millennial real of our Savior Jesus Christ on the earth.

Many times someone would ask mother when we were growing up if she was excited to be a direct decedent of the Prophet John Taylor, the prophet who was a witness and also living survivor with wounds to the martyrdom of the the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum in Carthage, and she would always say, don't worry about that, just live your life so that he will want to meet you. And so she did.

May God bless you all, may you know how much your Heavenly Father knows and loves you, and how much he wants to bless you with good things. May we all move forward in Love, eye hath not seen, neither ear heard the great things that God has prepared for those that love him. As the Savior said (John 14:15) if ye love me, keep my commandments.

God Bless