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STIMULATOR message for the week of May 9, 1972


Message from President Eugene C. Ludwig, dated May 9, 1972

“GOD COULD NOT BE EVERYWHERE, SO HE MADE MOTHERS”

Dear Fellow Missionaries:

I think one of the most beautiful tributes to mothers that I have every read or heard is the one given by President Joseph F. Smith to his mother.  “I owe my present life and condition in life as much or more to my beloved Mother as I do to any other soul.  She laid the foundation for my future in the example of her life, and in the teachings she gave her children; in the fortitude she manifested in the hour of trial, deprivation and poverty; in the patience she manifested; in her integrity to truth; in her fidelity.  She was always right, true, intelligent, broadminded, liberal, just, kind, merciful, and loving .. she was always good.”

It is true that most successful men, when faced with giving credit to the most powerful force in their quests in life, usually look back with tenderness and gratitude to their formative years when their Mothers taught them the truths by which to live.

At the side of every strong and outstanding man there is most usually a strong and faithful woman.  First in the form of his own mother and later in the form of his own wife and mother of his children.  I am grateful to my Mother for the example she set for me to follow and for the love that she has always shown to me.  I am also grateful for the Mother of my children, for the example she has been to them, and for the love and devotion that she has radiated in our home through the years.  It is a blessed man indeed who has the dedicated love of a good woman.

It is a sacred and blessed calling for a woman to be chosen to be a Mother.  You remember in Genesis 17:16, when the L:ord said, “And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a Mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.”  Men have been blessed with the Priesthood of God and the great trust to act in God’s name.  Women share in this blessing through being devoted and faithful wives of their husbands.  Women, likewise, have a sacred singular blessing or calling — that of being Mothers in Israel.  This is a sacred trust and a partnership with God.  It is through Mothers that the great prophets and leaders come.  It is their obligation to nurture and train these precious spirits, in the ways of the Lord, as children.  Men share in this important duty also, through their love, concern, and leadership as the patriarch to their family.

Let us all remember to “Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”  This was one of the first commandments ever given to men through the Prophet Moses.  It is as important and as applicable today as it was those thousands of years ago.  Let us all show our gratitude and love to our Mothers every day of our lives, by being the son or daughter that they would have us be and that they think and have faith that we are.  Let us be true to the hope that they have in us and in so doing fulfill the trust and love of our Heavenly Father in being dedicated missionaries.

Faithfully yours,

President Eugene C. Ludwig

“DON’T AIM TO BE AN EARTHLY SAINT, WITH EYES FIXED ON A STAR.  JUST TRY TO BE THE FELLOW THAT YOUR MOTHER THINKS YOU ARE.”  (Will S. Adkin)


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