The Faith of Mothers

I think that one of the traits we see in the great mothers of the scriptures is faith.  The mothers of the righteous leaders in the scriptures (when we know anything about them) were nearly always women with exceedingly great faith.  The most prominent example of course was the mother of the Savior Himself.  When told of her mission to be the mother of the Lord, Mary responded in perfect faith: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”  Before Jesus was even born she showed the faith that she had in her mission, saying, “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.  For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name” (Luke 1:38, 47-49).  She trusted in God so well that she could speak of things far into the future (and how right she was about being called blessed for many generations).  Many years later when Jesus was beginning his ministry she likewise showed her faith in Him, telling the servants at the marriage in Cana, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (John 2:5).  She had perfect confidence that Jesus could somehow solve their problem of not having enough wine, and surely that saying was a general maxim by which she herself lived.  She trusted in Him all through His ministry, following Him to the very cross upon which He would die even though by that point so many others had forsaken Him (see John 19:25-26). 

Mary was a woman of great faith, and many other righteous mothers in the scriptures showed that same trust in God.  Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist believed that Mary had in her womb the Savior immediately when she saw her cousin.  She exclaimed, “And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43)  Elisabeth had the faith to believe that which could not be seen with physical eyes.  Paul alluded to the faith of Timothy’s mother when he said, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (2 Timothy 1:5).  Timothy had faith because of the faith of his mother and grandmother.  In the Old Testament, the mother of the prophet Samuel showed great faith in the Lord.  When she was unable to have children, she had such trust in the Lord that she “vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 1:11).  And her faith was such that the Lord indeed heard and granted her prayer, making her the mother of the next prophet in Israel.  In modern day scriptures we also have examples of the great faith of mothers.  Even though Sariah did at the beginning questioned what would happen to them in the wilderness as they set off on their journey and their sons were presumed dead, as soon as she had her witness she proclaimed, “Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness; yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, and delivered them out of the hands of Laban, and given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them” (1 Nephi 5:8).  That was a faith that even Laman and Lemuel who were on the journey and saw the angel did not develop.  Sariah faithfully bore with faith the terrible trials of the next decade of traveling to the promised land.  Another example of course were the mothers of the stripling warriors.  Said the young soldiers, “We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (Alma 56:48).  It was the faith of those mothers that gave strength to the stripling warriors, and it was the faith of countless mothers that gave shoulders for the great prophets of the ages to stand on.