How is being a mother like being like Christ?

I read recently that “no love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child” Behold Thy Mother. How exactly does the love of a mother come close to the love of Jesus? Each of these types of love are everlasting, are a constant continuing effort, and are self-sacrificing. I also hope to honor some of the mothers that I have seen in my life. Take into account that there are exceptions to this maternal love, but I will speak about mothers as they are generally.

Eternal

When the Lord appeared to Jeremiah in the Old Testament, he told him “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). Christ’s love for each one of us doesn’t have a beginning or end. A mother will likewise always love her child, no matter how much they despise or disdain her. She will care about her child. When Christ appeared to the Nephites, he compared himself to a hen saying, “how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings” (3 Nephi 10:5) He willingly compares himself to one of the most mothering of all animals and implies that His love will never end.

“How oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens.”

3 Nephi 10:5

I know one mother who has dealt with the defiance of a child who is learning to become her own self as an adult. There have been intentional and unintentional harsh words passed between them, but I have seen how the mother continues to love her child. That kind of love never ends.

Another mother who exemplifies the eternal nature of this love is my great-grandma who, even without a husband by her side for many years, has shown love to each of her children. To this day she reaches out to her children and their descendants with an outpouring of love that will never die.

Constant

A mother’s love is not just a one-time feat that lasts a lifetime. It continues with the tiny first steps, the kind help with cuts and bruises, the late nights helping with homework or listening to the woes of a teenager, and the emergency calls from their children who are learning to be adults. Elder Holland said, “[I]t is not only that [mothers] bear us, but they continue bearing with us. It is not only the prenatal carrying but the lifelong carrying that makes mothering such a staggering feat.” In a similar manner, Christ’s love for us is constant and present. We can always rely on His power, His wisdom, and His comfort whenever we need it.

It is not only the prenatal carrying but the lifelong carrying that makes mothering such a staggering feat.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland

One mother I have come to love has shown this kind of constant bearing of the burdens of her children. After a certain tragedy in their home that was particularly hard on her, she was able to, given some time, help her children to also bear their grief. She has brought them up from despair to hope, relying on Christ. This wasn’t just a one time event, but has been a continuing effort throughout their lives.

Sacrificial

Christ’s ultimate and infinite sacrifice was to “go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind” and to “take upon him the pains and sicknesses of his people.” (Alma 7:11-12). Not only did he have to endure all the pains of this earthly life, but he also had to endure what it would be like to be eternally separated from our Father. This suffering caused Him, “the greatest of all”, to “tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that [He] might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink”.

Mothers have described labor as intense and painful, yet they willingly go through with it to bring their child into the world. Then they continue to sacrifice their time, their sleep, and their own interests to help raise that child. Although this looks different in each family, mothers everywhere sacrifice themselves for their children. How better to come to know our Savior than to give of yourself as He gave of himself?

My own mother has shown this time and time again as she raises her 8 children. I have seen her relinquish her own time and self-interests for her children. I know she has stayed up into the late hours of the night with a newborn or with a growing teenager comforting and listening. She continues daily to get food on the table, to keep the house relatively clean, to help the children with their homework and encourage them to learn, to manage the different and sometimes conflicting personalities of everyone in the house, to teach them the Gospel of Christ by word and example, and to even go the extra mile of doing activities as a family. She has done this for 25 years, sometimes even while working a full-time job. Because of all these responsibilities, she has postponed many of her own goals. Her greatest goal is to be a mother. I know she doesn’t feel like it was done perfectly all that time, but I know it was perfect enough for us. I am so grateful for her sacrifice for me.

As mother, teacher, or nurturing Saint, she molds living clay to the shape of her hopes. In partnership with God, her divine mission is to help spirits live and souls be lifted.

President Russel M. Nelson

Although mothers can be compared to Christ, no mother is perfect like He is. That is why He came. So each of us, mothers included, can repent daily and become better. Becoming a mother sometimes seems daunting to me, but I keep reminding myself that it’s ok to make mistakes. I am very honored to have the opportunity to be a mother and to learn to love my child-like Christ loves her. President Nelson taught that “to help another human being reach one’s celestial potential is part of the divine mission of woman. As mother, teacher, or nurturing Saint, she molds living clay to the shape of her hopes. In partnership with God, her divine mission is to help spirits live and souls be lifted. This is the measure of her creation. It is ennobling, edifying, and exalting” Woman of Infinite Worth.