Mary, mother of Jesus

As this Christmas season begins the person that has been on my mind lately is Mary, the mother of Jesus.  We know of her purity because she was the person chosen by God to be the mother of the Savior.  We know of her obedience because she accepted this call without a moment’s hesitation.  We know of her humility because she did all the hard things God asked her to do.

All of these attributes sure do make one amazing woman.  But there is another one she had that I would like to focus on and take a lesson from as a mother: that is her enduring strength, or more importantly her strength to endure.  I can only imagine what pregnancy must have been like atop a donkey or the incredible discomfort that must’ve come with giving birth in a stable.  Personally both of those things were hard enough for me from the comfort of my own home and a nice clean hospital room.  Even before that she endured the scorn of her community as she was judged for being an unmarried woman with child.  And then after Jesus was grown she saw him, her son, nailed to a cross for the sins of the world.

The pain- physical, mental, and emotional- that must have accompanied each of these situations must’ve been almost more that she could bear.  And yet she bore them.  And now, through her we have a Savior who died for us.

My mom told me once that motherhood “fills you with an inexplicable love that gives you super human strength.”  Against all odds you care for your children in every possible way you can.  It requires great sacrifice sometimes to bear all the things motherhood requires.  And yet we can bear it because of that super human strength that Heavenly Father gives to all mothers.  In my mind Mary is perhaps the best and most beautiful example of that strength and power, that ability to endure.

A fellow mother in the blogging world said this:

“As a mother, having experienced the birth of my own children, passing through both the sorrows and joys of raising them, now being witness to my own daughters becoming mothers; having set themselves upon their own, very personal, journeys into Motherhood, I can only contemplate, with deep emotion, the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ -- our Savior and Redeemer.  To me, Mary is a sacred symbol, as well as spiritual evidence, to all of mankind, of the worth and dignity of the sacred calling of every woman, as a mother. As we study the life of Mary, the mother of the Savior of the world, the pattern of motherhood is clearly marked.” (http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com/2012/05/like-mary-mother-of-jesus.html)

If you get discouraged in motherhood sometimes, as I’m sure many of us do, remember Mary and that super human strength she had.  And remember that you have it too. 

In her life I’m sure she was a great many things- a daughter, a sister, a cook, maybe a worker- but to all the world she will always be known first and foremost as a mother.  It is her identity and it is now mine too.