Our Mothers Knew It

I'm never going to be Mother of the Year.  I gave up on that awhile ago, but every once in awhile there will be some sort of blow up or mishap that just reaffirms it for me.  Last night was one of those nights.  It was probably a combination of exhaustion and stress and hormones (not just mine, by the way), but whatever it was created the perfect storm.  There really was no yelling on my part.  I tried really, really hard to make sure that I wasn't screaming.  But I did say some things that were, in hindsight, probably better left unsaid.  The bad thing about it is that I'm not sure if anything at all got resolved.  Time will tell, I suppose.

I read today about the two thousand young men that joined Helaman.  He referred to them as stripling warriors, because they were all very young.  Two thousand of them, probably around the age of my two oldest kids, and perhaps even younger.  They were in a perilous position, with a strong Lamanite army chasing after them, when all of the sudden they were alone.  Helaman realized that the Lamanites had probably stopped and were attacking another Nephite army who was bringing up the rear, and he thought that it may be a trap to get him and the boys to turn around.  He was in a tough spot - should he turn back, and perhaps fall into the trap, endangering these young men or should he continue forward, and risk that his fellow Nephites would be killed?  So he presented the situation to these young boys:

Therefore what say ye, my sons,  will ye go against them to battle?(Alma 56:44)

In his letter to Captain Moroni, Helaman expresses his astonishment at the great courage that these boys showed with their response to him:

And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, no not amongst all the Nephites.

For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me:  Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth...

Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying:  We do not doubt our mothers knew it.  (Alma 56:45-48)

I've thought about this a lot.  There were two thousand of those boys.  Some of them were probably brothers, so it's safe to say that there were at least one thousand mothers who were responsible for raising them in such a manner that they would respond in the way that they did.  To me, this is somewhat mind-boggling.  More than one thousand righteous mothers, who did not know what the future would hold for their sons.  They had no idea that these boys would someday be called upon to fight to protect their families.  And when they were needed, these moms let their boys go with nothing but faith that they would be returned to them.  Why were the boys so brave?  Because their mothers gave them the strength and the knowledge that if they believed in God, he would deliver them from whatever circumstances they would fall into.  

These were really courageous young men, but I can't stop thinking about their moms.  What had they done to be so trusted by their sons?  These boys said "We do not doubt our mothers knew it."  They did not doubt.  How had these women behaved as they were raising their sons?  Did they have nights like I had last night, when they went to bed angry or frustrated?  I imagine that some of them probably did.  So how did they overcome that and earn the faith and trust of their children?  The only way that I can see that that would be possible is with the help and guidance of the Lord.  The only person that could possibly love my kids more than I do is Heavenly Father.  He wants to see them succeed.  He wants to see them happy.  So I have no doubt that if I will bring my concerns and frustrations to Him, He will guide me through them.  He will show me the way to earn my kids' trust.  

Click here to read what I read today: Alma 56