Thomas S. Monson on respect for mothers

President Thomas S. Monson (1927- ) was sustained to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in 1963.  He served as a counselor in the First Presidency with Presidents Benson, Hunter, and Hinckley until becoming Church president in 2008.

"Oh, I recognize there are times when Mother's nerves are frayed, her patience exhausted, and her energies consumed, times when she says, 'My children don't appreciate a single thing I do.' Have you heard that phrase? Have you uttered it?

"Well, I think they do appreciate you. One of the questions after a study of magnets at a junior high school was this: 'What begins with "m" and picks things up?' The obvious answer, of course, was magnet; however, more than a third of the children answered mother.

"There is nothing more touching and beautiful than a mother kneeling with her child, teaching the little one to pray, then, arising from their knees, the child is tucked tenderly in bed and receives a goodnight kiss. Mother gently says, as she closes the door:

Goodnight.
Sleep tight.
Wake up right
In the morning light
To do what's right
With all your might.
I love you.

"I think it is significant that usually the first word a child utters is Mama. In fact, one grandson's first word, pronounced while looking at his father, was Mama. He will soon be a BYU graduate, and I still tease him about that. Historians of battlefields of war, however, state that frequently the last word spoken by a dying combatant is Mama or Mother. Love of mother and her teachings has prompted more bad men to be good and good men to be better than any other motivational force."

- Thomas S. Monson, "Timeless Truths for a Changing World," BYU Women's Conference, May 4, 2001
Click here to read the full talk

President Monson has often expressed his deep appreciation for the service and contribution of women and mothers. He was certainly blessed and molded in profound ways by his own mother during his childhood, as many of his personal stories attest.

In this excerpt from a talk at a BYU Women's Conference, he reassures mothers of the critical importance of their role and encourages them to carry on in faithfulness, particularly when they feel unnoticed or unappreciated. This vision of a mother's influence is a particularly tender one:

And this concluding testimony is a valuable reminder of the lasting impact a mother has on her children: