Happy Mother's Day

It is with some trepidation that I post today about Mothers Day.  After all, there are good moms and there are lousy ones.  There are faithful ones and unfaithful ones.  There are mothers who would compete favorably with God and ones that will rank with Lucifer.  Because it's Mothers Day, do we honor all mothers? motherhood? potential motherhood?

I believe we honor the ideal and the idea of motherhood. Without mothers, our race would die.  Without mothers who strive to be ideal, who teach and train their children how to live an ethical life, our race would probably deserve to die.  Mormons teach that "the natural man is an enemy to God".  It takes the influence of mothers, fathers, and even a whole village to raise a child. I think Mothers Day is a good time to reflect on mothers' positive role in this process.

As our society changes we have also seen that "mother's role" also changes.  Even who the "mother" is can change from day to day and hour to hour.  And not just for same sex unions.  Such unions usually have significant experience defining then redefining "mother's role".

And finally, Mothers Day is a day to inspire us to help mothers come closer to the ideal and for non-mothers to be inspired by those who have shown that spark of god-like motherhood.

Robert McClintock - Ward Chorister

"Magnify your calling" is a phrase I believe unique to Christian congregations. It doesn't mean so much "kingdom building" as it does "make the most of the opportunities of that position, and in fact go out of your way to create opportunities." One of the people I automatically think about in connection with "magnify your calling" is our (immediate past) ward chorister Bob McClintock.

The minimum job performance in this job is to show up most of the time and coordinate the speed of the hymns between the organist and the congregation. If there are enough chorister candidates in the ward, one can even show up as little as 50% of the time and still give the appearance of filling your calling, if not magnifying it.

For the past several years Bob has contacted the appropriate meeting supervisor to determine what the meeting's theme is and if there are special numbers being requested. Bob then selects appropriate hymns for the meeting and notifies all appropriate leaders, program specialists, etc.

But in my mind, what really put Bob over the top was his way of directing a congregation like it was a choir - a 200 person choir. He directed the organ player not the other way around. A couple of times, he has stopped the hymn in mid-stride and instructed the organist as to what tempo or dynamic he was looking for. He would indicate to the congregation speed up, slow down, soft, loud, etc. rather than accepting the whole hymn with as little variation as
possible.

For example, a favorite is "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel." Bob would start each chorus with "put ....... ...... your ..... ..... shoulder .... ......... to ....... ............ the wheel..... push .... a long. Do ... your ... duty ... with ... a heart.. .... ......full of zeal..... We all .. have.. work.. let no one
shirk, put your shoulder to the wheel. " He would mime pushing a wagon wheel slowly at first then faster, faster, and faster.

Bob has not departed from this world. I suspect he's just taking a little break to recharge his batteries. Until he returns to this calling I don't envy his replacement.