Why Do Mother's Cry?

A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?" "Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"

"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked,

"God, why do women cry so easily?"

God said, "When I made the woman she had to be special.

I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed."

"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart the place where love resides."

Now this story was clearly written by someone and it does not have any doctrinal proof that this is, in fact, how women were created; however, for most who read this, especially women and mothers, it touches us in our hearts.  I believe it touches us in our hearts because it is our Father in Heaven letting us know that yes, we were created differently and for a special purpose.  We should not try to be the same as all the other children of God, always trying to be equal.  We were created for a wise and separate purpose.  We should be engaged in the same purposes as others, however, including uplifting others, our children and those with whom we serve and help them to feel of the love that their Father in Heaven has for them. 

As a mother of four – 3 boys (2 of whom are teenagers) and a daughter – I have shed many, many tears.  These tears have been for a variety of reasons, including feeling hurt or disappointment in their decisions, words and actions.  I have been engaged in long prayers with my Father in Heaven for an understanding of how I am to parent “this child” because I am feeling so hurt or sad or frustrated.  Amazingly enough, the answers are always the same.  “Love him.”  “Serve him.”  Invariably I find that those words that echoed through my mind and heart were just the right things to do.  While it didn’t “fix” my child(ren), it did strengthen me.  It uplifted me to be the mother that I was created to be. 

I do not know if my children will ever know of the many hours I have spent on my knees or with my head bowed in pleading supplication to the Lord for His strengthening power to get through the day and to be a “good mother”.  Perhaps they will never know how much I ached with them and for them in the quiet of my own room.  Perhaps they will not know the number of times I negotiated with the Lord to allow me to take on their pain so that they would be spared.  And perhaps they will never know the number of times I asked the Lord to distance the memory of their mother losing her patience from their sweet minds.  But I do know that it is my job, as their mother, to bear all of these things FOR them and to tell them EVERY DAY that I love them and that they are extraordinary children of God.  If this is all that they know and all that they learn from me then I will have done my duty - as a mother - well, and I can return with honor. 

To my children…I love you.