Real Men Love Their Mommies

            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.