What My Mother Taught Me about Faith

and

How She Did It.

My mother was an interesting woman for her age.  In the 1960’s, men seemed to know and read the scriptures more than the women.  Most of my friends mother’s “lived” the gospel rather than “studied” it. 

Not my mom, she lived it and studied it.  I saw her reading her scriptures quite often.  She knew her Old Testament amazingly well and I was often told a Bible story for a bedtime story or just during the day because she thought it was a good time to tell me the story.  We had this big Family Bible with pictures.  Mom, often told me to look through it at the pictures (this was a way of keeping me busy while she was doing something else).  I didn’t like the pictures.  I still don’t like that artist’s work.  But the pictures made me ask questions and Mom would tell me the story regarding the picture.  Because of this, I gained a good foundation for my study of the Old Testament later. 

My first year of teaching Seminary turned out to be an Old Testament year.  I would often begin the lesson by saying, “Oh, this is one of my favorite stories!  Who can tell me the story of Jonah and the Whale (for instance)?”  I was shocked at how many kids did not know anything about the Old Testament.  They knew Adam and Eve, a few knew about Noah (the good one, not the bad king) but the rest of the book was just a black hole to many of my students.  (I also wondered if they had not gone to the Doctor and the Dentist.  When I was a kid there was this blue book of Bible stories in all the doctor’s and dentist’s offices.  That was another place I learned about the scriptures from my mom. She would sit by me and read the stories or just tell them in her own words. There wasn’t much else to do while sitting there.  Sure there was Highlights Magazine, but that was not as much fun as having Mom read to me.  But I digress.)

From listening to my Mom relate the stories of the Bible to me, I knew that she believed in God.  She loved her Savior.  I knew at a very young age that my mother had a testimony. 

I knew that she said her prayers.  I never saw her, at least not that I recall.  She would close her door to say them.  She was very good at getting me to say my evening prayers as part of my bedtime ritual.  She would whisper what I should say and I would repeat it.  Then one day in either Sunbeams or Stars we were challenged by Sister Inkley to say our prayers at home by ourselves and to ask Heavenly Father if he was really there and if he loved us.  That night I told Mom that I needed to pray by myself.  It was the beginning of my testimony.  But Mom never listened to my prayers again.  I was a little hurt by that at first.  However, Mom knew that I no longer needed her guidance with my prayers.  Her job there was finished.  Because of this I developed a very good relationship with my Father in Heaven that has helped a lot during my life.  She knew when to let go.

Mom taught me to keep the commandments and to expect the blessings that came from obeying them.  She often quoted D&C 130:20-21, “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven…upon which all blessing are predicated…when we receive any blessing…it is by obedience to that law…”

She often took me to deliver food to the sick or a new mother.  She would tell me that she was offering a service and that she would receive a blessing for doing so.  She told me that by watching for that blessing she could be thankful for it.  Another one of her favorite scriptures she liked to quote to me is also found in the Doctrine and Covenants 59:21.  “And in nothing doth man offend God,…save those who confess not his hand in all things…”

“If you don’t expect the blessings,” she taught, “you won’t notice them and you won’t thank God for them.”

One day when I was in Junior High, Mom was getting ready to prepare dinner.  Michael and Kathleen were both on their missions.  Kennecott Copper Company was on strike in Utah causing economic problems for the community.  Therefore, Dad did not have a lot of work.  No one was building new homes.  Well, Mom pulled out the shelf that had the soup cans on it.  “Wow, we only have one can of soup left to make dinner tonight.  Don’t know what I will do tomorrow night.  Glad I paid the tithing this month.” 

This was spoken so matter-of-factly I did not think there was anything to worry about.  I had dinner the next night and the next night and every night thereafter.  When I was a mother myself, I asked Mom about that time.  She said she remembered that night.  There really was only one can of soup in the cupboard.  She said there was other food in the house, but not much, cans of vegetables and all the bottles of fruit downstairs.  But she said that we had absolutely no cash in the house and no cash coming in.  The savings were being eaten up with bills and missionary checks.  Then she bore her testimony to me again…”But I had paid our tithing at the beginning of the month.  I wasn’t worried.  We would make it.  My goodness, two of our children were serving missions.  Your Dad was in the bishopric.  I was in some calling.  We were doing what we were supposed to be doing.  We weren’t going to be left destitute.”  Again, she was very matter-of-fact. 

There was one area in which I was surprised at my mother’s lack of faith.  That was in herself.  One day when I was about 10, I asked what she thought it was going to be like in the Celestial Kingdom.  She informed me that she didn’t think she was going to go there, but she thought the Terrestrial Kingdom was going to be beautiful. 

I was shocked!  How could my mother not think she was not going to be in the Celestial Kingdom?  As I developed a better understanding of the atonement and salvation I would often read a few scriptures with her and discuss it. So did my siblings.  I think she changed her viewpoint on this towards the end of her life. 

Her lack of faith in her own worthiness helped me to study and investigate the truth.  Because my Mother read her scriptures and believed and acted on them, because she expected blessings for obedience, because she knew when to leave me alone with my Father in Heaven, and because she had lack of faith in herself, I developed my faith.  It is the greatest gift she ever gave me.  Thanks Mom.  Love you.