Tribute to My Mom

Today is my beautiful mother's birthday.  She is the perfect mom for me.  Oh how I love her!  Every time I reflect, I think of a new list of values and lessons that she has taught me.  Today I want to highlight three lessons that I have been thinking about recently.  My mom has taught me...

To Beautify  
"Your work is to beautify the face of the earth until it shall become as the Garden of Eden (Brigham Young). 

This is one of her favorite quotes, and she lives her life by it.  If her car is in the garage but she's not in the house, it's a given--she's outside gardening.  My mom is not afraid to get her hands dirty and work up a sweat in order to beautify the land around us.  I'm grateful for the love my mother has instilled in me for this earth and its potential to bring forth flowers and fruits.

She's not only taught me to beautify the land.  Something that she's often repeated to me is "It's important to take care of yourself, even after you get married."  That doesn't mean there's no room for unhealthy foods (we love our oatmeal chocolate chip cookies) or that the Blunck women get their make-up on every day.  The point is to accentuate the beauty that God has given His children.

I love coming home because I always know there will be changes to discover.  My mom is always working to beautify our home.  I'm a "home body," and much of it has to do with the feeling that my mom has fostered in our home by decorating it and making it inviting.



To Listen
My dad jokes with my sister and I about our ability to call while my parents were on their mission within 2 or 3 minutes of when they walked through the door after a trip to visit their missionaries.  My response is "well, the odds are pretty good if you call 13 times within an hour."  My sister and I always knew the day and roughly the time when they would be returning, and we couldn't wait to tell Mom everything.  We knew (and we still know) that she cared about all that we had to share.  That assurance came from 20+ years of experience talking to her and recognizing that she'd heard it all.

My mom and I have a little story (that involves a swear word and an apostle's book) behind one of our favorite phrases: "I'm having a human moment."  It's a phrase that I usually say when I'm feeling teary.  What it means is something like I know everything is going to work out.  I know I need to trust God. I'm grateful to know that you'll listen and won't try to give me a list of answers.  I'm grateful that you don't think less of me because I'm having a hard time and I struggle.  Listening opens doors for people to share their human side, their true feelings, and to find strength.  My mom has helped me understand that.



To Grow
Having grown up during the 1970s when women's careers were really starting to be pushed, being a stay-at-home mom was hard for my mom to embrace.  She talks about how challenging it was for her to find fulfillment in that role.  What I take away and value is that she grew.  She didn't reject the idea because it was hard for her.  She worked to love her children and as she did that, she slowly began to recognize that her greatest work was within our family. 

I loved getting my mom's letters while she was on her mission (and I was on my mission) because I could see her growing.  (It's interesting to realize as a child that your parents are still growing :D)  Leaving her home and family for 3 years to go to a third world country where everyone spoke a different language was hard, but she didn't quit.  She worked to learn Spanish, she embraced the Peruvian people, she loved her missionaries, and she studied the scriptures in order to learn more about Christ.  She had "human moments" and sometimes yearned to return home.  What matters is that the attitude that won-out was her willingnes to embrace growth.  One of our family mottos is "We can do hard things."  That motto was coined during my parent's mission and it has everything to do with growth.      




Oh how I love my mother.  May we all look to our mothers and see what lessons they have taught us.  None of them will be perfect women, but there is much good to see in them.