And for thousands of Latter-day Saints who will be delivering a Mother's Day talk tomorrow, it is looming large. Expectations are high and scriptural sources are limited.
Motherhood is not a prominent topic in the Book of Mormon -- you won't find many quotes from Nephite women in the text. In fact, Sariah's complaint ("Behold thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, and my sons are no more, and we perish in the wilderness," 1 Ne. 5:2) is the only direct quote from a woman I'm aware of. A selection of phrases employing the term "mother" doesn't help much either: mother of harlots (1 Ne. 13:34, 14:17), mother of abominations (1 Ne. 14:9, 10, 16), and great mother of abominations (1 Ne. 14:13) don't give you much to work with, while "mother of the Son of God" (1 Ne. 11:18) sets the bar a little too high.
So it's not surprising that some of tomorrow's talk writers send an online prayer to Google to find some additional sources (I've seen several of these pop up in blog stats over the last day or two). Google "LDS mother's day talk" and LDS blogs provide four of the eight hits that come up on the first page, with only one Conference talk making the first page. Good news: the blog entries are pretty good and won't make you crawl under the pew should they appear in someone's talk tomorrow. But presenters are still advised to head to LDS.org for their Sunday morning online research. Here are a few handy links to get you started:
- "Daughters of God" by Elder Ballard, April 2008 Conference.
- "Mothers Who Know" by RS President Beck, October 2007 Conference.
- "A Mother Heart" by YW Counselor Beck, April 2004 Conference.
- "Because She Is a Mother" by Elder Holland, April 1997 Conference.
Originally posted with comments at Times and Seasons.
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