Wordful Wednesday...What inspires me...

Wow! What a topic! Now it has to be someone or a scene that inspires me...but not religious. I though about that and there are alot of people who inspire me. And when I thought about those people in a group, the majority of them are mothers. Mothers I know, Mothers I've seen, being a mother...the total package inspires me to be a better person and consequently, a better mother.

For instance, my husband is a nurse and he works all kind of crazy shifts, so he works on alot of Sundays. This means I have the duty to take the kids to church. Some weeks this is a struggle, and I will admit that there has been a number of times where we are running late in the morning (or I just don't have the energy or patience) to make it to Sacrament Meeting. As this is happening, I usually console myself by saying..."Well, its just me and my kids...its just too hard to do it on my own..." But then I think of Mom's I've seen or known that take their kids by themselves (A past Young Women Leader who had 4 kids, including twins, and still came to church on her own), or Mothers sitting by themselves because their husbands are in the Bishopric (my own mother included) or even other mothers whose husbands also have to work on Sundays sometimes and still manage to get to church. After I think about this, I tell my self "Next time, I will be stronger. I will be better. If they can do it...I can to."

I know every woman is different and every mothering situation is different, and therefore every Mother goes through their own trials. But what inspires me about Mothers, is that they keep on going. They take their mistakes, learn from them, grow, and later, pass on that knowledge to their own daughters. My own mother to me is very inspiring because we are alot alike in temperament and attitude. We both have a short fuse and certain things just really annoy us. But I actually would not think of that of my Mom because you never see it. She's like the happiest Gramma ever. She just wants to play with the kids and spoil them, and who cares if they make a mess...it just doesn't bother her anymore. She told me once when I was really struggling with being a Mom, that she used to yell and snipe at us kids alot when we were younger ( I actually only remember her doing this a couple times WHEN we were not doing as we were told but...) And that my Dad would just gently remind her what she was doing, and she would think about how it would make her feel if someone did that to her. Also, she said once she ran away from home when she was a mother. She actually got in the car and drove away (around the block per say) but realized that she was the adult, and basically she was the one throwing the fit, and turned around. She told me that she realized that those little things that may annoy us are trivial...they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. And when I am having a really rough day of parenting, I try and remember that ( it doesn't always get through, but I'm working on it). It does inspire me and make me want to be a better person and a better Mother, because my kids deserve that. 

There are many tough jobs out there in this big ol' world...but I think being a mother is one of the toughest. We are molding the future. We are nurturing the leaders of tomorrow and this does frighten me a little bit. That fear, along with the knowledge that I love my children more than anything, and want the very best for them, inspires me. Every day it inspires me to try that much harder to do a better job.