Essence of Insanity: Father in Heaven has sent me to you

I was asked to give a talk today - on Mothers' Day. Best/easiest topic ever. And since it's Mothers' Day, I thought I'd pay tribute to the woman who birthed me - the 9 lb baby (pictures included).

"Two weeks ago when sacrament meeting ended, I had actually planned to go to Sunday school on time instead of dawdling like I normally do when Brother Peterson asked if he could talk to me. Now we all know what he wanted to talk to me about. It was obvious that he was asking me to speak in sacrament meeting, and on Mothers’ Day of all days. My first reaction was, “crap”, but then I thought that since I’ll be graduating in less than 2 weeks, I might be safe after that to not give another talk, but I saw what happened to Alex Arnold, so I know that anything can happen. And I just hope that the bishopric notes that I did indeed give a talk before I graduated.

Now the topic Brother Peterson gave me, and I quote, was “Why my mother rocks.” So I interpreted that as license to embarrass my mom. And since this is not a common topic and you might not know much about her, I will give you some background:

Suzanne Allen (now Hopkinson) was born in California on July 31^st at an undisclosed year that she will lie to you at any chance she gets. She is the second oldest of 5 kids with 3 brothers and 1 sister. Growing up she danced and played the clarinet…sound familiar? After graduating high school, she attended BYU like any other good LDS girl and married my dad. She traveled all around the country with him in the Air Force while raising 3 unruly children. Now she works at home as a medical transcriptionist. And for the past 4 years she has been trying to keep up with me as I made my high school career as busy as possible. People often mistake us and our voices. They claim that she sounds like me, but she is quick to tell them that I sound like her. She has a wicked sense of humor and enjoys making fun of us kids (all in good fun of course). Currently she has the best calling in the church: ward librarian. And so now that you know a little bit more about her, let’s get to the good stuff.

In The Family: A Proclamation to the World, it states, “Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.” Nurturing means to care and encourage the growth of someone, and my mom has not only done this physically with my brothers and I, but spiritually and emotionally as well. She has taught me things early in life like that fact that boys are stupid. She taught me the fact that life is hard, so you should always wear a helmet. She taught me good taste in music like Earth, Wind, and Fire, and Boston for example.

My mom is also one of the most down to earth people you will meet. You can talk to her about anything and she gives the greatest advice. When I’m worried about something or have a problem, I know I can go to her and she’ll help me through it.

My mom is a great friend and will talk to anyone. There will be times when my friends at school come to me and tell me how cool my mom is because they just talked to my mom for a couple hours and she helped them with their problems. In our family, our needs have always come before hers. She has dealt with things that a mother shouldn’t have to go through, yet she’s been the strongest woman through it all.

My mom has always been willing to help me with whatever I need in life. She is the most selfless person I know. I can’t count how many hours she’s spent contributing to the programs I’m involved in, and I can’t count how much time she’s sacrificed to serve people that she didn’t have to. She never complains when I ask if she can sew me some clothes or a dress that I want. When people ask me where I get my clothes, I have often responded, “my mom made it” and people are genuinely impressed. She has encouraged me to do whatever I want in life and I know she will always be there to support me.

She is my best friend and I admire her greatly. She is a great example of what a mother, a wife, and a daughter of God should be. I am so spoiled to have such a great influence and mother in my life and I don’t thank her enough. I love her immensely and am grateful for everything she does for me. I want to be like her when I grow up and I’m sorry for all of you because contrary to what YOU think, I have the best mother in the entire world. I am grateful for the gift of mothers in our lives and our Heavenly Mother in heaven."