Mothers

As we get close to this Sunday – a day of celebration and thankfulness but also of heartbreak and disappointment for many – I’m thinking about my own mom in heaven and then of my three precious daughters and my eight-month-old granddaughter.  How I love them!  How grateful I am that God allowed me to be tied forever together with them.  He uses this role of ‘mother’ like nothing else in my life to shape me, humble me and keep me drawing close to Him.

Here are a few links that are all about being a mom (or a grandmother!).

How not to be disappointed this Mother’s Day
@lisajobaker.com
The flowers that didn’t come, the cards that were forgotten, the breakfast that was a disaster and that you had to clean up while everyone else was watching football.  The house that wasn’t quiet or clean or tidied up. The getting to sleep in that didn’t happen, the nap that evaporated into a toddler’s meltdown, the meal that someone else didn’t prepare. The laundry that wasn’t folded for you. The kids that didn’t call, the sermon that wasn’t about mothers, the grand kids who didn’t visit. I heard it again and again in so many different, disappointed, let down ways – how this one day can’t possibly live up to what it means to mother.

 
 

22 things I learned in my first ten years of parenthood
@conversiondiary
Surely I’ve learned at least one or two things about this whole “keeping small human beings alive in your home” thing, right?

Love
@cloverlane
I've learned over the last two decades that when I find the joy in mothering, yes, even when it requires every ounce of me, when I look through the world from the eyes of those who call me mommy, when I stop thinking "oh, this is hard" and started thinking "oh, i'm so lucky", I've fully enjoyed all the aspects of parenting.  I think I owe love and devotion to my children-I think all parents do.

WORDS are so powerful, aren't they?  I've said it before but I would take a card with a personal note in it over flowers, chocolate, a blender or breakfast in bed.

Someone has said 'The way of the parent is often the way of the cross: the glory and grace and joy in it come at significant cost.'  It's hard. The hardest thing I know of.  But it is also a beautiful picture of Christ's commitment to us.

So even if we don't get a card, let's remember this... we are doing something great in this calling we have. No one else in all the world will ever have the place we've been given in our children's lives.  Imperfect, messy, persevering, humbled, believing, hopeful, sincere, praying... we have a place of incredible importance.

Happy Mother's Day!