* Taken from the book, Life Lessons from Mothers of Faith, from LDS publisher Covenant Communications.
My mother was a beauty queen. As a teen, she was Miss Portland, and she wowed the judges with her skill as a concert violinist. She later went on to BYU, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in education, and she also performed regularly with the BYU Program Bureau, which enabled her to perform around the world.
I was the oldest of three, with my sister, Hannah, and my younger brother, David, who was nearly eight years my junior. Playing the violin was a skill we all learned. As a family quartet, we would often play for various Church functions or other events. The fact that she wanted us to have the challenge of learning such a difficult instrument exemplifies my mother’s skill as a mother. She had a knack for finding every opportunity to teach her children important lessons. Not only did she teach us to love music, but she knew that the process of learning to play a musical instrument would teach us patience and help us realize the rewards of learning other skills too.
I’ve been blessed with an expert mother who loves being a mother. She possesses a God-given gift of mothering. I’ve never met anyone who loves to mother more than my mom. I marvel how she revels in the minutia of mothering as she goes about it with seemingly little effort.
She embodies the best qualities of all of the best people I know. She is talented, intelligent, and wise, and has shared her wisdom with me throughout my life. I’m often amused at how much I still learn from her.
She is also my teacher and my example. Her degree was in education, but she was a natural-born teacher, in addition to the degree. She has the ability to connect her soul in quiet ways with those she teaches. I guess you could say she has a very high EQ (Emotional Quotient), as she understands why people-especially children-act as they do. If a child is feeling left out or needs some additional love and attention, she’s there to help out and is always quick to give a hug or talk or listen, simply because she is completely sensitive to the needs of others.
As my children and I get older, I am especially able to appreciate her unique and innate aptitude for connecting with others, identifying their needs, and responding appropriately to meet their needs.
In addition to those abilities, I am blessed to experience a unique mother-daughter relationship with her. It wasn’t until I had a child of my own that I had a deeper appreciation of this unique relationship. Consequently, my mother is my confidant. I can tell her things I would never tell anyone else in the world, things no one else would understand. I value that element of our relationship. And when I tell her something in confidence, I have complete trust in her because I know she will tell no one, as she always keeps her promises.
I was a bit late to motherhood, becoming a mother at the age of thirty-seven, but I made up for it by having an instant family when I married my husband, Mark, who brought with him three wonderful children from a previous marriage. Our two youngest children, William and Ella, came along later to complete our family. Although I may have been intellectually prepared for being a mother, I was undoubtedly surprised by the intensity of motherhood.
Quite frankly, I don’t love a lot of what I must to do as a mother. I can usually think of a million other things I would rather be doing than sitting on the floor playing with my son and his toys. But the other things I would be doing are not as valuable as teaching him that he is worthy of my time or helping him learn right from wrong or a myriad other lessons I can be teaching him while we sit together on the floor.
My mother taught me that nothing is more important than what I do with my children right here and now. And although I sometimes feel the world is passing me by, I know from watching my mother’s example and remembering how it made me feel that spending time with my children is always time well spent. Let the world pass me by if I can make my children feel as loved and valued as my mom has made me feel.
My mother taught me that motherhood matters. It matters to my children. It matters to my family. And most importantly, it matters greatly to God. He and I have an indelible connection and dual interest in rearing His spirit children, as I am just a temporary steward. My mother taught me the importance of trusting God and subjecting my will to His will, even if doing things His way doesn’t make sense to me at the time.
I learned this lesson in a powerful way when I was eighteen years old. My brother David was ten when he woke up one morning and he was so sick he couldn’t walk. Initially, we thought he had a virus, but as the days wore on, his condition worsened. After several tests, we learned the horrifying news that he had a malignant brain tumor.
His treatment was aggressive, and after weeks and months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, he was bedridden and physically unable to communicate. Painstakingly, my mother would sit for hours, reciting letters in the alphabet, waiting for my brother to open his eyes to confirm a letter in a word they were trying to spell out.
Day after day, I watched and prayed for my brother, praying for what I so desperately wanted, which was that he would be restored to good health. I remember vividly the outpouring of support from friends and neighbors. Church members brought in dinners each night for months while my mother attended to David. She watched over him, lovingly dressed him, and took care of his every need. Collectively, our faith was united and determined to help him get well, and I’m confident that no other group of people had more faith that David would be made whole.
Then, one night in December, the pain medication could barely dull his pain, and my brother was given a priesthood blessing. The message was brief, but for the first time, it ended with the words, “Thy will be done.” It required great faith to accept those four words, knowing His will may not be our will. At just eleven years old, David passed away that night. It was December 21, 1985.
David’s farewell was held on Christmas Eve.His gifts were still under the tree, as in the months and weeks prior, he cheerfully encouraged everyone around him to live life to the fullest and to believe that he would be around to celebrate the holiday. To honor David, my mother, my sister, Hannah, and I played our violins, with David’s little violin resting silently on a music stand next to us.
I still miss David to this day. Yet, I often contemplate the unspoken lessons my mother taught me about compassion, service, and pure Christlike love-a mother’s love.
She taught me a powerful lesson of not of only subjecting my will to God’s will but also of the importance of not being angry or resentful when the Lord’s will is different from my own.
About Jane Clayson Johnson:
Jane Clayson Johnson is an Emmy-winning journalist and author. She grew up in Sacramento, California, where she was an accomplished violinist and played with the Sacramento Youth Symphony.
She graduated from Brigham Young University in 1990 with a degree in journalism. She began her television career at KSL-TV in Salt Lake (1990-1996). While at KSL, she traveled to China to write and produce a series of stories about American doctors assisting Chinese children with disabilities. Her work there earned a regional Emmy. She also received the Radio and Television News Directors of America’s Edward R. Murrow Award while at KSL.
In 1996, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a correspondent for Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and other ABC News broadcasts. Her work included coverage of Senator Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, the OJ Simpson civil trial, and NATO’s strikes against Kosovo and the resulting refugee crisis in Macedonia.
In 1999, CBS News launched “Operation Glass Slipper,” the widely publicized search for Bryant Gumbel’s co-host on The Early Show, and Jane was chosen. From 1999-2002, she anchored The Early Show through the new millennium, the inauguration of President George W. Bush, and the attacks on September 11, 2001.
She and her husband, Mark, live near Boston with their five children.
