The secret to being a good mom

I learned a great life lesson from Marlene before her passing. She was an wonderful person and an incredible Mother. She raised four kids on her own for the most part. Her kids are incredible parents themselves, they serve whenever and where ever possible, they are good citizens in the community and so much more. All things she taught them. She sacrificed so much to give them the very best- like Reebok Pumps for Jared when he was 10. She never had much money to work with but always made sure they had what they needed. So many times she would sacrifice money from her budget to buy their yearbooks, a cool shirt, school lunches (when they could have qualified for help) or whatever else she saw they wanted within reason.

Life gets pretty crazy for every mom. At the end of the day, around dinner time seems to be the hardest. The kids are hungry and restless while you try to get dinner on the table and take care of whatever chaos might be happening. For most of us our husband comes home and is just as ready to eat as the kids are and you might be at your wits end. What do you do? Me? Try and stay calm, try to tell my self that I really do love my kids- even when I want to pull my hair out. But not Marlene. For her the sunset was her saving grace. I've written about it before.

So back to my lesson.

One night, my sisters and law and I were sitting with Marlene asking her questions about life when my sister in law Tara asked her what her secret for being such a good mom is. She sort of chuckled and said "oh, there's no secret. I just looked forward to the sunset each day. I knew that if the sun was setting, then Heavenly Father was keeping his promises and everything was as it should be." It was a sign that he was still there. Instantly the thought came to me "the secret is in the sunset."

And it is. The world is going to go on no matter what kind of day it is, but it is a sign that you are being watched out for. I have taken it to heart and tried to apply it in every possible way over the last few weeks. And the truth is, it does apply.

So for Christmas I gave each of my sisters in law this picture.

It's not as fancy as I wish it was, but I wanted to make it small enough that they could put it in their kitchen window or some where that it would gently remind them that not only is Heavenly Father watching out for us, but so is our dear Mom.