05/23/2025
One morning in December 2012 remains etched in my memory—a defining moment in my journey through motherhood. My husband, our two children, and I gathered in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, closing a two-year chapter that brought our youngest to us through adoption. That morning felt like it was the first time over those few years that my body relaxed. That my breathing wasn’t fraught with anxiety and worry.
Motherhood had not followed the path I once envisioned. It brought splendor and beauty unlike anything I’ve ever known into my life, and it also introduced me to weeping and sorrow that has been equally unmatched. Motherhood has brought me closer to God as I’ve relied on my covenant connection to Him in caring for my family. Consequently, I’ve felt such joy, sweetness, and belonging in my relationship to Heavenly Father, and my Savior, Jesus Christ. Motherhood exposed my failings but gifted me with purpose, making it my most rewarding calling—my life’s most exhilarating work.
Kneeling at the altar, with small hands resting atop mine and my husband’s, I saw eternity stretching beyond every struggle, every complication, every dream that lived in our newlywed hearts, beyond even my childhood. I saw who I always was, who I was becoming, and who I will continue to be: mother. And my whole body relaxed into that eternal identity.
I suspect that, for many women, the journey through motherhood may have similar threads. Maybe it includes joy and pain, infertility and abundance, waiting, praying, wondering, worrying, and faith. My small glimpse into eternity that day has helped me continue to find reasons to celebrate motherhood and its eternal journey. It helps me to remember that it’s greater than our season in mortality, greater than the limits of our physical body, and wide enough to hold both joy and sorrow in sacred trust. It’s eternal work, woven with heaven’s help. It’s a divine partnership with God, who seeks to show us who we are, who we are becoming, and who we will continue to be. It’s sustained by covenant promises that reach well beyond this life—an anchor in God’s eternal plan for His daughters.
