It should come as
no surprise to anyone who knows me to hear that I love my momma. She, alongside my father, has raised me up to
have the very best preparation I could have to serve our God and King in these
last days before His Son returns. This
preparation included ten years of homeschooling me full-time, sacrificing much
to ensure that I had an education that was truly second to none. All of the exemplary maternal love I have
received from her notwithstanding, however, I have noticed that real men really
do love their mommies. More than a
personal love of the one who gave them life, there also exists in well-adjusted
males a deep-seated ache for a matriarch to love, protect, and adore.
A few days ago, I came back from
four weeks of service on the Hill Cumorah Pageant Work Crew. For those who do not know, the Hill Cumorah
Pageant is an enormous outdoor theatrical performance of scenes from the Book
of Mormon, portrayed on the very location where the angel Moroni hid golden
plates to be uncovered by Joseph Smith Jr. two millennia later. Those plates would be translated by the power
of God, and published as the Book of Mormon, but I digress. The pageant is performed on an immense steel,
aluminum, and fiberglass stage. This
stage must be assembled annually. In His
infinite wisdom, our Lord decided that this stage would best be constructed by
17-18 year old boys a week before the show’s cast arrives. These boys arrive on the Hill, leaving behind
their homes and all personal affairs.
For many of these young men, myself included, it is the longest period
of time they have spent away from home.
In this environment of young males who are away from their mothers for
the first time, a truly fascinating and sacred dynamic began to emerge: these
boys immediately found surrogate matriarchs.
The Work Crew Director’s wife, Sister Hess, was called to assume such a
role. She introduced herself as
“Mamahess.” She would keep laundry
moving, let us know if we were getting sloppy, and generally keep our standard
of living somewhat above that of a failed state. What proved remarkable to me, however, is how
we immediately looked to her as a mother.
Not even for a second would any one of us have dreamt of disrespecting
Mamahess. She was the first to eat at
every meal. Nobody ate until Mamahess
had. We all truly loved her as a mother. This paradigm extended still further. The Pageant is illuminated by twelve
spotlights atop twelve tall metal towers.
These spotlights were directed by Sister Howard. Sister Howard spent long nights with the
light crew, instructing, correcting, and guiding them. It was not long at all before the name “Sister
Howard” was replaced with “Mama Lights.”
She also was protected and adored by the twelve boys she served as
though she truly was the one who gave them life. Nobody asked us on the light crew to do
that. We did it because…well we just
did. It felt right, and we felt we had
to. None of this was rationally decided:
it just was.
This deep-seated love and respect
for mothers is nothing new. Helaman’s
2060 young volunteer soldiers pointed to the faith of their mothers as the
foundation of their courage.
“Now they never had fought,
yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their
fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their
mothers, if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their
mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (Alma 56:47-48).
At least three
times in the following chapters do the young soldiers point to the faith and
diligence of their mothers. It is also
interesting to note that the Stripling Warriors referred to their commanding
officer, Helaman, as “father.” The boys
were looking for something to adore and feel loved and protected by, and they
found it in a surrogate parent.
The ultimate example of a strong,
well-adjusted, world-changing man being unashamed of loving his mother is, of
course, Jesus Christ. This is very
clearly seen in the Gospel of John.
“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the
disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold
thy son! Then saith he to the disciple,
Behold thy mother! And from that hour
that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:26-27).
The
Savior of the World, amidst all the pains that he suffered for you and me,
compounded by the agony of being tortured to death on the cross, remembered His
mother. If anyone had an excuse to
forget his Mom, or was “too cool” to love and look after her, it was Him. He didn’t forget. With this testimony and example in mind, I
think it pretty obvious that real men really do love their mommies.
