My daughter, Cassie, recently had a visit from a childhood friend. It had been 17 years since they’d seen each other. After visiting and sharing stories of their lives, Ashley, my daughter’s friend, commented that Cassie had accomplished so much, earning a master’s degree and starting a successful career and she was “just a mom.”
My daughter looked down at her friend’s beautiful little girls through tear-filled eyes, “Ashley,” she said, “I would give anything to have what you have. Just a mom are the three most powerful words in the world.”
I often wonder how many other mothers feel like Ashley. It’s kind of hard not to when society has been so successful disparaging what used to be considered the noblest of professions. It’s even harder amongst dishes, diapers and a never-ending mound of laundry. We’ve all had those days when we wonder if it’s all really worth it. I’ve had plenty ofthosedays. You know the ones where almost everything you do seems to be a grand waste of time. Like the days when you find permanent marker all over the wall you just finished painting or red Kool-Aid stains bleeding into the carpet you just shampooed. It makes it easy to look at Hollywood stars, corporate executives, or media professionals and wonder if we should be doing more with our lives. And yet, many of those women—who seemingly had it all—have left those very jobs to be full time moms. Why? Because they know motherhood is the most powerful, most influential profession in the world—and comes with the greatest rewards.
If I wanted to destroy a society and tear down a free nation I would do exactly what the Destroyers of Liberty are doing. I would launch a full out assault on women. I would do everything I could to discredit and devalue them. I would try and convince them that motherhood is insignificant, that they need a job and title of be of value. I would convince them they need experts to teach and nurture their children. I would convince them they have to do it all, be it all and have it all to be truly successful. I would do everything I could to pull the women from their homes and their families—especially their children—because I,like the Destroyers of Liberty, know just how powerful their influence is.
The mothers of a nation mold its institutions, develop its character and shape its destiny. There is no other profession on earth that possesses that much power and influence. Oprah Winfrey said, “To play down mothering as small is to crack the very foundation on which greatness stands…It is on her back that great nations are built.”
America needs us and God is counting on us. The women of America play a vital role in the preservation of our country. The values and principles our nation was founded on will utterly vanish without us.
A few years ago while living in Hawaii, our family had the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of the state. I was particularly interested in the story of the hula. While we have come to associate the hula with luaus and Hawaiian vacations there was a time when it meant much more. The hula was how the Hawaiian people preserved their culture, history, heritage, and their language. In the early 19th century whenChristian missionaries came to HawaiiQueen Ka’ahumanu converted to Christianity. She determined the hula to be an immoral, idle past time and issued an edict banning the hula. It was forbidden to perform it or teach it. Hula schools were closed and the hula virtually vanished from public life.
Decades later a new king, David Kalakaua, was on the throne. While traveling through Europe King David was impressed with the music and theater unique to the area. As he explored the European culture further he realized the uniqueness of his own culture. When the king returned to Hawaii he called his advisors together and told them he wanted to bring back the hula but he didn’t know how. What did it look like? How was it even done? They thought the hula was dead. To their surprise, however, what they found was an entire kingdom of children who had been taught by their mothers and grandmothers. The government had outlawed the hula but the families preserved it in their homes. And when the king called for the hula the people rose up and delivered it.
That is the powerful influence of mothers. It is the influence we have on our culture when we create a foundation of liberty in our homes, sharing and living the principles of liberty and virtue with our children. And when the day comes when all hope seems lost and people cry out “where is liberty? Who can show us how to do this?” Our children will rise up, carrying the banner of freedom, and say, "we know it because our mothers taught us."
This Mother’s Day remember just how powerful the words “Just a mom” are. And when you’re cleaning up the kitchen after your “breakfast in bed”, planting this year’s mother’s day flower or reading that handmade card your children colored, remember you are not just raising children, you’re changing the world!