The Mormon Messages channel on YouTube put this video out. I was scrolling along on Facebook and saw it. Usually I ignore them, but for some reason I clicked this one.
From the first few shots I wanted to cry. This was my life. A not so dramatic reenactment of my every day. I know the feeling of crossing one thing off my list and adding two more. I know the feeling of being someone's last resort and not having the heart to say no. You can FEEL the desperation pouring into your soul as they ask for a favor. Having been the one in dire need, I know how beautiful that "sure I can do it" sounds.
A lot of the comments on the Facebook page are from woman saying things like "if this is how good Mormon women are supposed to act, then I'm nowhere near a good Mormon woman!" Or "so the message of this video is that we need to completely ignore our own needs and serve to the point of a complete breakdown?!"
Oh dear sisters. No. If that's how this video is being interpreted, then I'm sorry you did so. To me this video wasn't a reprimand that I'm not doing enough. That I'm not sacrificing enough. That I could always do more and my own desires be damned.
To me this video was so utterly relatable I cried through the whole thing. I saw every day of the last five years of my life in 8 minutes. It was hopeless. It was depressing. It was stressful. Then, the ending. Very often I'm ushering kids to bed only to hear Allie say "but what about prayers?" I'll admit there are times when I'm so 100% done that I literally can't even. Not for all the yoga pants in Starbucks. The times I do kneel down with the kids and hear their prayers, I'm blown away by the things they say. I remember one time Allie was saying our prayer before bed and she said "please bless mama to have a good day and get lots of sleep so she can be happy tomorrow." I didn't get much sleep that night, but her prayer stayed in my mind the next day and I tried so hard to be happy despite my lack of rest.
There's an LDS hymn called Have I Done Any Good?
Any good. Not all the good.
So moms, dads, friends...watch this video. Don't feel like you should be like the woman portrayed. Instead, feel like the things you do are enough.
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