Mothers

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw.  All I am, I owe to my mother.  I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education I received from her.”  George Washington   I would have to add spiritual education to the list.

A friend whose daughter was expecting her first child confessed to her mom that she was worried about having this baby because she didn’t know if she would love him or her.  Her mom replied, “Honey, all you have to do is look at your baby, and the love will be instantaneous.”

That advice goes for any mother whether their child is biological, adopted, fostered, or any scientific miracle!  There just is an instant love!  In order to nourish that love, there is nothing better a mother can teach their child than love for God.  God honors mothers who honor Him.

In the first five years of my life, I was sick constantly with tonsillitis. I ran high fevers, had seizures, and was generally pretty miserable.  I can still remember lying in bed, burning up with fever, looking up and seeing my mama’s face.  Hers was the last face I saw before I drifted off to sleep, and the first face I would see when I woke up. I can remember her saying, “I wish I could trade places with you, sugar.”  She would have done that gladly for any of her girls.

As mothers, we all go through times when we wish we could  “trade places” and bear some of our children’s pain, disappointments, illnesses, bad decisions, and other issues.  Such is a mother’s love.  We would love to spare them all the pain life can bring, but we have to turn them over to one who has a greater love for them than we.

I can only imagine the sheer agony of Mary, the Mother of Jesus as she watched her son suffer on the cross.  She was the first face He saw when He was born, was with him during his short life, and was among those who gathered at the foot of the cross.  I know she would have willingly “traded places” with her son.

Mothers are God’s angels here on earth to show His love to their children.  “The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father.”  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Randy said it best in 2003 when he wrote, “A mother’s love is often defined as ‘that love which most resembles the love of God’.  Her love is life giving and often the most sacrificial – just like His.  Many of us love God today because our Mother’s love best explained and exemplified His.”

Happy Mother’s Day!