It's All Relative

Happy Birthday Sister O!

It's my Mom's birthday today. Tonight she is throwing herself a big party with all of her friends. I think that's pretty cool, that she's throwing her own party. She has a lot of good friends who adore her and it will be nice for them to be be together and celebrate.

My mom is a trip. She's one of those people that everyone just likes. People love to be around her. I never really got that as a kid, mostly because I was too busy being a bratty teenager, but now I do. She is so positive and engaging. It's a quality not a lot of people have, but she sure does.

In high school, I would have to get up extra early to attend seminary and I hated it more than anything. My mom got called to be my class's teacher and that made it worse. Back then, I couldn't handle her positivity. But not only that, I always felt that she had more dedication towards the other kids in my class than she did me. All the kids in the class loved her. They'd stay after class and talk with her about their dramatic adolesent lives and she'd listen, almost like a surrogant mother. Back then, I would roll my eyes and hold it against her. I felt she was too involved, too into her role as a seminary teacher. As I have gotten older though, I realize how selfish I was being. My mom is a leader. To some of these kids, she was (and still is) their guide, the person they could come to and confide their problems in. I know now that as my mom stayed up late every night planning her lessons for the week, as she woke up at the crack of dawn to bake muffins or pick up some donuts for breakfast for us all, she wasn't doing that to be liked. She was living the exact way she had so hard to teach us to live. Selflessly. Her goal every morning was to try and inspire us to learn about the gospel and strengthen our testimonies and if bringing donuts in the morning helped, than so be it. And even though I may not have appreciated then, I do now.
For seminary graduation (I don't know how I graduated), I was asked to give a talk on a scripture mastery,

1 Nephi 3-7
"And it came to pass that I Nephi said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them...."

In my talk, I remember relating that scripture to attending seminary . I didn't know why I was asked to get up at 5:30 every morning and learn about the scriptures. As a teenager, I thought it was torture and unnecessary. But now, as I have grown up I realize exactly why I was supposed to go. To be honest, I can't recite any scripture masteries or really remember any of the lessons from class, but what I learned about my own mother is something I will always appreciate about those 4 years in seminary. Her ability to connect to the youth of the church is rare and I know she has been the best and only positive example in a lot of kids lives. Her testimony has grown so much since teaching seminary and I know our family has been blessed because of it.

So Mom, Happy Birthday. Thanks for being there to listen to me complain, laugh and cry (a lot, let's be honest). Thank you for your positivity in all things, even when I get mad at you for it. There are so many things about you that I hope I can become in the future. Have fun at your party. And remember, you're a "sweet spirit" :)