What I Admire About My Mom

My dad has one favorite, and that would be my mom.  Not only did my dad tell me this almost on a daily bases, but he showed me this simple fact by his actions. Growing up before every mother’s day, Christmas, and my mom’s birthday he would come to me and ask if I had gotten my mom a gift yet.  If the answer was yes he would then ask me what I got her, I can only guess that he would do this to make sure I had gotten her something better than a stick of Chap Stick, which had been done before.  If the answer was no, or there was a lack of funds to purchase a gift he would give me some money to go get something suitable for her.  If I needed a ride he would provide one, never coming into the store with me but would patiently sit in the car and wait while I went in to purchase a gift.  This never changed each year even as I grew older. Married with children, still my dad would come to me before each of those holiday’s to see if and what I had gotten my mom. Now I know my mom pretty well, and know that she is not really that big of a gift person. I know that my dad knows this fact too, but it was never really about the gift at all. My dad wanted to teach me how to show respect and gratitude towards my mother. This is just one of the many examples of how my dad has shown me how my mom should be treated.

A few days before my dad died he asked me to sit with him for a while to talk.  Among the many things that we talked about we talked about my mom. He shared with me how much he loves my mom, and told me some of the many qualities he admires in her. Then he asked me what I admired most about my mom. This was my reply;

I love that my mom is a strong woman. She is not the type of person that just sits back and lets things happen to her she takes action. As a young girl I saw this in my mom and admired it. I knew from that point what kind of woman I wanted to be.

My mom is the classiest person I know. She has a grace about her that comes seemingly effortless.

I love that my mom can make a new friend anywhere she is. She can be standing in line at the post office and know more about the person next to her then I think they even planned on sharing. When I was in high school all the kids knew that if we went to my house for lunch we would not be returning for our last classes if my mom was home.  She would sit with us and entertain us all!

My mom is incredibly talented. To this day I do believe that there is little she can’t do, that is unless is has to do with making the printer work. If there is a question on how to do something my first thought is, “Oh, mom will know!” And when she gives me the answer, I reply, “Well of course you know you’re the mom.”

I love that she has a passion for the Gospel and always made it known to us kids. In my patriarchal blessing it starts off by say, “Carrie, you were born of goodly parents who have taught you the gospel of Jesus Christ, and have assisted you in receiving a strong and enduring testimony of the gospel.  You are very fortunate to have been born under such circumstances…” When I received this blessing as a kid I usually skimmed passed this part and didn’t really think a lot about this. As I have grown and am a mother myself, I now understand and am so grateful for the wonderful parents I have and was taught by. My dad would often tell us kids that we will never be able to come to him and ask him why he didn’t tell us, or why he didn’t teach us. I can defiantly say that BOTH of my parents taught me and I can not go to either of them to wonder why I wasn’t told. Now this wonderful trait of theirs was not always joyful to live with. As a kid who often didn’t want to hear it, having to sit through some of the lessons was less then fun, but as an adult with children of her own, I truly know that I was born of goodly parents who have taught me the gospel.

After I shared this list of things that I admire about my mom my dad asked me to type them up, print them out, frame them, and hang them in my house so that I will always remember what kind of women I want to be like.  It has taken me a year to do this but I have typed them up and need to find a frame so that I can place this on my desk in my room so that I might always remember the person I want to be like, my mother.