Love can be very precious. Yes, I hear you say, that’s a bit obvious but so what? …Well, it’s actually a mnemonic – let me explain further.

As an MBA graduate, I have encountered lots of well-known business models like the Boston Box, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, McKinseys 7S’s and Belbin’s Team Roles. They probably sound a little double-Dutch to most of you. but here’s one that you will find easy to understand and that’s yet to find its way into the Business School syllabus. It’s called the “Five Dimensions of Motherhood”. It’s pretty new, in fact only two weeks old, which is probably why the Business Schools have not discovered it yet, and was partly inspired by the World Day of Prayer service written by women in Taiwan that was so ably led by Mary and her colleagues at the beginning of this month.

When I was young, I used to coin acronyms and mnemonics to help me remember key words and formulae for exams. I am sure some of you will have done the same. So, it won’t come as too much of a surprise that each dimension in this business model is represented by a letter.

Let’s start with a capital L for love. It’s hard to conceive situations where mothers fail to love the children they have carried and given birth to as babies. Sadly, as recent news has highlighted, it does happen but not fortunately in our first reading today. Amid the genocide of Hebrew male offspring ordered by Pharoah, Moses’ mother devises a clever way to preserve her son’s life, winning the opportunity to nurture and love her son until he was old enough to become part of Pharoah’s family. We see a similar love reflected in the lives of Hannah and Samuel which is one of the other readings we could have had today. However, that love demands much of mothers which takes us nicely to our second dimension …

To find out what remaining letters in the mnemonic Love Can Be Very Precious mean, you’ll need to read the rest of the reflection given by Adrian Masson at our Mothering Sunday service on 19 March, which can be downloaded at this link.

Our image was found on the web page created by the Church of England that tries to answer the question “Mothering Sunday, what are its origins in the Church?”