My Mom Can Beat Up Your Mom

I think every kid knows the ultimate comeback--the one they need in the most desperate of times-- the one they need when they are backed into such a corner that the only logical thing to spew from their lips is, "Well, my dad can beat up your dad." There was usually a gasp, a huge sucking-up of air, and all eyes turned on the next kid to see what he or she would say. There was really no bigger kahuna than that one, and yet, I wonder if there was something else we could have said, but never tried.

Today, I am trying it. Today I am going to tell you, on this mother's day, that my mom can beat up your mom. Now I know that my mom would never actually do this, and that is what makes her so great, among other things, but today let me just tell you why my mom really does beat all other moms.

My mom beats other moms in the way she taught me to love. My mom showed me and all my brothers and my sister Cipher in the Snow every Sunday for the first several years of my life, and taught me to care about the little guy. I was always afraid that if I was mean to someone they would fall off the bus and die of a broken heart. Now, I know I was still mean in third grade to the kindergartners and mean to Shelly in 7th grade, but after that I finally figured it out by watching her. She taught me to make friends with people who had no friends when she visited my great-aunt who lived in a crowded trailer park home on State Street, and when she hugged someone goodbye after meeting them on an airplane. She taught me to come into a room and brighten it, rather that dimming it, by her smile and her interest in everyone from a teenage friend to an aging, forgotten Relief Society sister.

My mom beats other moms because things are NEVER more important to her than people. As kids we turned her couches into high jump pits and her wood floors into roller skating rinks and basketball gym floors. You might be thinking that she is so casual about it because she doesn't have nice stuff that is worth anything, but it is exactly the opposite. She loves beautiful, ornate tables, chairs and bedding, but that never kept her from letting all of us feel at home in her home. We could crawl up on her bed at any time of day or night to talk, to laugh, to tell her about our lives. When my sister and I were living there for 6 months with 7 boys under the age of 8 and they broke the swan head off the swan table and the leg off the antique-looking table, or her ottoman caught on fire from being pressed against the gas fire place, her response was, "It's OK. We can fix it." And it really was OK. No backbiting, mean talk about so and so's kids. She honestly still loved those little crazies.

My mom beats other moms because she lives to love and help her children (and just about everyone else in the world, too.) If you call her to babysit or to grab some dressing at Costco or go pick up your carpool, she drops everything she's ever thought about doing and literally runs to your aid. Sure, she'll call a friend and be late to a lunch she was going to, or be late to a doctor's appointment so she can pick up your kid. And the best part of all, she won't make you feel guilty about it then or later. She actually loves to do it for you. It makes her happy.

My mom beats other moms because she shares all that she has with others. She shares time, money, her home. Growing up, our house was a literal hotel. We had friends living there, friends of friends, cousins, Swedes, South Africans, Indians, and a girl named Mary Christmas (I think). One guy ran away from home and even hid in our dog house--anything to be close to her home. She opened her heart and her home to countless people and changed each of their lives. As they saw how my mom ran her home with warmth, love and the gospel, testimonies increased or started. She literally changes lives with her love.

My mom beats other moms because she loves the gospel and is the best missionary in the world. She isn't afraid to talk to people about the church, to tell them what she believes. Flying on an airplane with her is like a Mormon Revival. She engages everyone around her and by the time we get off, people are crying, feeling loved, and are going to read the Book of Mormon. On a recent trip to Panama, she just about converted everyone, including the tour guide.

My mom beats other moms because she really believed that all of us kids were the best things in the world. I heard her tell it to her friends, to her husband and to us. She knew we were special and worthy and wonderful and we felt and feel like that when we are around her. (Even when we looked like this!)

The amazing part is, she is the one who is special, worthy, and wonderful and I just hope that she knows it.

My mom really can beat up your mom. But, I hope you were lucky enough to believe the same thing about your mom.