Mother

A mother is a co-creator.

The Great “I am” spoke a word of life in the beginning, then made possible for a mother to generate life in herself.

For that alone we are grateful for nine months of gestational attention, then labor and delivery. I think we best not forget the discomfort and suffering she endures to bring us to life. If that is all a mother does for us, we can be grateful.

Most often, there is much more.

She needs to be a patient and kind teacher. A child is largely a blank slate, desperate for someone to teach them the way. Frustration with the child subsides when we realize that they are a bundle of awkward mistakes until they learn over and over the better choices. Teaching is relentless and repetitive until the child will hear that voice their entire lives. “Say please.” Now, “Say thank you,” and if the child does not live the lesson, they will surely notice the absence of the lesson in others.

A mother’s job is perpetual. Care must be provided every minute of every day, even if someone else temporarily watches her child.

Feeding, bathing, playing, insuring their safety, providing a home, paying all the bills which insure a high quality life and accessing quality medical care, is critical.

Holding and touching are formative in the life of the child. I suspect no one can measure how much a touch is worth, which allows a child to know they are loved.

Every day is Mother’s Day, but we have chosen one Sunday of the year to reflect on the fundamental  and primary influence of women who have served the role of mentor, parent, teacher and friend in our lives.

Their presence and ability to shape us, is woven tightly into who we have become and who we are becoming.

Ah, and I must say, but almost hesitate to say it, there are no perfect mothers. If, on this day, you are drawn to be critical and disappointed in your mother, try and remember how she carved out a space for you in this troubled world maybe the best she knew how. Focus on the tender moments of love, the food she prepared the thousands of times she made you get up and go to school, even if it was to get you out of her hair.

Let us rejoice all day long, that there was a mother who one day had a vision of you and you came to be.

To God be the glory. 

Moving to the deeper places,
Jeff