Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Honoring Mama

Ahhh…Mother’s Day…that Hallmark Holiday that nudges us to do what we should do daily…appreciate our mothers. I truly wish I had done more appreciating and less chafing while my mama was still with me. I never really saw that her constant efforts to “improve” me were her way of showing love until she was gone. For most of my life I thought that there must be something terribly wrong with me if she had to fuss over me so.

Mama said just before she died that the happiest day of her life was the day I was born, and after thinking about it, I realized that it was simply because I made her a mother...the most important role in her life and mine.

 I heard a sermon at one of our baby’s baptisms that pointed out that the infants being brought to the font to be blessed and accepted as Christ’s own had done nothing at all to deserve being quite as beloved as they certainly were, each all dressed up in their baptismal finery and held in loving arms. They had simply been born. As I look at the picture attached, I can see that that belovedness was in my mother from the early hours of my birth. I didn’t earn it; I didn’t have to appreciate it; I didn’t even have to reciprocate it…but I did.

 I suppose the greatest honor my sister and I ever paid my mama was wanting to be just like her, only maybe a bit better. We learned the lessons she taught us well, and as I see our girls being an even better version of Mama than we were, I know that her lessons will live on.

I was so lucky to have Mama for as long as I did, and as a good friend told me I would, I still miss her everyday. But this Mother’s Day my children and grandchildren will come over for a swim and bring a meal, and my greatest delight will be in honoring my daughters as mothers.

Blessings,
Janie

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