For Moms: how do you feel on Mother’s Day?
Mother’s Day is a time for reminiscence…..another year has sped by, and our kids (and maybe grandkids) are another year older. My mother will be 90 this year. We chatted last nite about her garden, since she gets out every day to prune the bushes and pull the weeds. We talked of the football games over there (Aussie-rules footy), and she lamented that her team had lost to my team. She follows the game with interest and knows some of the players.
In this context, I received a comment from a younger lady I admire. I had told her I thought she was a terrific mom, and she replied “Well, sometimes I wonder….” It struck me that some (perhaps many) moms look back on their life at this time of year and wonder how good a mom they really have been.
We all know we could have done better at times. And we have all made mistakes in raising the kids. Sometimes we have been rejected by our kids, and this is heartbreaking for a mother. But we did what we did with the light that we saw, and the heart that we felt. God understands this, and that’s why he says to children to honor your mother. It’s not an option, it’s not conditional, and it’s certainly not just sentimental.
God knows our weaknesses, but still forgives us so we can forgive ourselves. Remember Peter. In an inexplicable lapse of loyalty, he denied Jesus not once but three times. But God joined with the forgiven Peter…..and used him to lead the new Christian church. God honored Peter, despite his infamous failing.
God also honors mothers. He knows something about the enormous effort and emotional cost and sacrifice to raise a child. The inadequacies and mishaps of the journey have been washed away by His grace. It is perfectly appropriate, in fact it’s right and good, to hold your head up high and feel genuinely honored this Mother’s Day.
“Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you”. (Deuteronomy, chapter 5).
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I’ve enjoyed and appreciated your comments on mothers. It is easy to take the love, longsuffering and sacrifices made by mothers for granted. I am so appreciative of the great love of my mother and the formative influence from her example of devotion, selflessness and just plain hard work to raise my brothers and me. Your blog on honoring mothers is spot on. Thanks!
Your reply says it all……thank you Neil.
Thanks, Ian! Very kind words. I appreciate your heart.