Motherhood

Today I sat in church and just watched all the mothers in our ward. Mothers ranging in age, but all showing their motherly characteristics. And I reflected during that hour about motherhood. How we are created with this instinct that makes us mothers, we become mothers as soon as we know there's a new life in us. We find ourselves dreaming about how great motherhood is, how we can conquer it all, that our kids will always be clean and perfectly dressed, and well behaved all the time. But we soon find that motherhood isn't as predictable as we had hoped. That motherhood is a hard job, the hardest, most demanding job I think we have as women, because it never stops. We don't quit being moms, ever. I watched all these different women with their children, (as I struggled with mine at times as well) and thought about all the different aspects of motherhood that aren't always so pleasant. The whining and crying, the wrestling in church pews, the baby spitup, and dirty diapers, and just pure restlessness of children being restrained for an hour. And I watched mothers with older children, those having struggles with their children that aren't visible to the audience like small children. The disobedient teenagers, the ones who look at their parents like they're stupid. And I thought of all the bad things that kids do, and how frustrating it gets as parents. How some days you just feel like you're going to explode. And then I thought about more of the unexpected things that come with motherhood. The women who aren't able to bear children, who long to just have a baby. Or those who have children with special needs, that have a lot more pressure on them than the typical mother. Or like me, the one who was asked to give her child back to Heavenly Father. And I realized that we take motherhood for granted. We just expect it to be something that we do, that always falls into place. We quickly learn that it's not always easy, that kids will be kids, that your time for mothering might not be here or now, and that makes it hard. But one things for sure, during all the bad times, there are way more good times. More little hugs and kisses, more little sweet comments, more cuddles and more cuteness, and that makes this whole mother thing WAY worth it.