Thanks, Lisa and Candace. That was really nice. I'm Ryan Reeder. I've been in the ward three years. Marc started off with introductions, so I guess introductions are in order. I'm the eldest of my mother's six children, and as of two weeks ago, one grandchild.
A few years ago, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland quoted in conference from a letter he had received from a young mother. He said "her anxiety tended to come on three fronts. One was that whenever she heard talks on LDS motherhood, she worried because she felt she didn't measure up or somehow wasn't going to be equal to the task. Secondly, she felt like the world expected her to teach her children reading, writing, interior design, Latin, calculus, and the Internet--all before the baby said something terribly ordinary, like "goo goo." Thirdly, she often felt people were sometimes patronizing, almost always without meaning to be, because the advice she got or even the compliments she received seemed to reflect nothing of the mental investment, the spiritual and emotional exertion, the long-night, long-day, stretched-to-the-limit demands that sometimes are required in trying to be and wanting to be the mother God hopes she will be.
"But one thing, she said, keeps her going: "Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God's work" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Because She is a Mother" Ensign May 1997, 36).
So what is God's work? We know from Moses that it is to "bring about the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). This is done through the plan of salvation, through which the earth was created and man and woman placed on it. The fall occurred when Eve gave Adam of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, creating the need for a redeemer so that through faith, repentance, receiving the necessary ordinances, and enduring to the end, we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again. In each facet of the plan of salvation-the creation, fall, and atonement-the role of mothers has been important. I would like to talk about this now.
President Hinckley has stated in conference concerning the creation, "when the process of creation occurred, Jehovah, the Creator, under instruction from His Father, first divided the light from the darkness, and then separated the land from the waters. There followed the creation of plant life, followed by the creation of animal life. Then came the creation of man, and culminating that act of divinity came the crowning act, the creation of woman.
"Each of you is a daughter of God, endowed with a divine birthright. You need no defense of that position" (Gordon B. Hinckley, "Women of the Church" Ensign November 1996, 67).
The first commandment given to Adam and Eve after the creation was to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it" (Moses 2:28). This concerned the importance they had as parents. Then Eve took of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and gave it to Adam through which they fell. But many great blessings came through this. Eve commented on these blessings in Moses 5:11: "And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient" (Moses 5:11). We see here that these blessings included becoming parents, knowing the law of God, a promise of redemption and the potential to inherit eternal life.
Later on, King Benjamin would prophesy of this redemption "And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
"And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary" (Mosiah 3:7-8).
Jesus Christ came to earth born of Mary. Later, the time of his ministry and atonement came. He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, then was tried, mocked, and scourged, and sentenced to death. As he hung on the cross, he saw his mother. John records, "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
"Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home" (John 19:25-26).
Here we see something of the role of mothers in the plan of salvation.
President Hinckley counsels mothers "The greatest job that any mother will ever do will be in nurturing, teaching, lifting, encouraging, and rearing her children in righteousness and truth. None other can adequately take her place. . . .
"To the mothers of this Church, every mother who is here today, I want to say that as the years pass, you will become increasingly grateful for that which you did in molding the lives of your children in the direction of righteousness and goodness, integrity and faith. That is most likely to happen if you can spend adequate time with them" (Hinckley, 69).
President Hinckley's own mother died when she was fifty and he was about twenty. Of her, he said something interesting, "Though my mother died when I was twenty, her influence and even the feeling of her presence have stayed with me to the present day. I can say with complete honesty that the only time I have ever allowed myself to think about the assignments and accomplishments that have come my way is when I have pictured my mother and hoped that somehow my life has reflected well on her and her teachings" (Gordon B. Hinckley Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues that will Heal our Hearts and Homes, Times Books: Random House, 150). President Hinckley is especially noted for his humility and modesty concerning the honors and positions he has held. It's interesting to note that he only thinks about these as honors as a reflection on his mother.
Joseph F. Smith, as Marc said, said that "the love of a true mother comes near to being like the love of God." Joseph F. Smith's father, Hyrum Smith, died in Carthage Jail when he was only six years old-almost six. His mother also passed away while he was fairly young. At fifteen, he was called on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands. He said of the influence of his mother while he was there, "Only a little boy, not matured at all in judgment, without the advantage of education, thrown in the midst of the greatest allurements and temptations that it was possible for any boy or any man to be subjected to-and yet, whenever these temptations became most alluring and most tempting to me, the first thought that arose in my soul was this: Remember the love of your mother. Remember how she strove for your welfare. Remember how willing she was to sacrifice her life for your good. Remember what she taught you in your childhood. . . . This feeling toward my mother became a defense, a barrier between me and temptation, so that I could turn aside from temptation and sin by the help of the Lord and the love begotten in my soul, toward her whom I knew loved me more than anybody else in all the world, and more than any other living being could love me" (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, 35).
Jeffrey R. Holland continued with a tribute to mothers, in the same talk I read at the beginning, saying "Yours is the grand tradition of Eve, the mother of all the human family, the one who understood that she and Adam had to fall in order that "men [and women] might be" and that there would be joy. Yours is the grand tradition of Sarah and Rebekah and Rachel, without whom there could not have been those magnificent patriarchal promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which bless us all. Yours is the grand tradition of Lois and Eunice and the mothers of the 2,000 stripling warriors. Yours is the grand tradition of Mary, chosen and foreordained from before this world was, to conceive, carry, and bear the Son of God Himself. We thank all of you, including our own mothers, and tell you there is nothing more important in this world than participating so directly in the work and glory of God, in bringing to pass the mortality and earthly life of His daughters and sons, so that immortality and eternal life can come in those celestial realms on high" (Holland, 36).
Through Jesus Christ, we are resurrected and can obtain eternal life. Through our mothers, we receive our bodies and begin our lives in this estate which may lead to eternal life.
I'm very grateful to my own mother, who has contributed so much for me in selfless service and sacrifice over the years. I probably don't appreciate her enough-I may not be capable with all she's given me.
I know that Jesus Christ lives. Through him, we can gain eternal life in the plan of salvation. I know that mothers are an important part of that plan, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.