Happy Mother's Day

Today is the day we celebrate mothers and motherhood, and you know what?  Moms deserve it!

The influence of a mother on her children cannot be measured.  We care for them and provide for all their needs when they are little, we shepherd them through the difficult teenage years, we becomes a friend when they reach adulthood.  We pass down the lessons we learned from our own mothers.  We impart our values and life philosophy to them, and whether they accept or reject our teachings, our influence will always be felt in their lives.

I recently shipped a personalized Lord's Prayer blanket for a customer.  She had requested that the embroidery read, "This is the first prayer you taught me.  It sustains me every day of my life."  Wow!  What a statement! That simple prayer that her mother taught her as a little child had become a guiding light and comfort for the rest of her life.

So many times, it's not the big things we do for our children, but the little things that they remember and take with them in the years ahead - baking cookies with them, saying prayers with them at night, helping them with a big homework project, listening to them read a book, encouraging them when they are feeling down, singing a special little song for them.

Let's face it - being a mother is hard.  It's hard work, and sometimes it's painful.  When our children hurt, we hurt.  We watch over them, pray for them, love them.  It's joy, too, when they take their first step, say their first word, when they beam with pride at winning their first soccer game, playing their first song on the piano, or bringing home that all-A report card.

There are mothers who have lost their children, and children who have lost their mothers (I am one - my mother passed away 25 years ago, but she is ever-present in my thoughts and memories).  I grieve for and with them.  Today is hard for them.

My husband recently wrote, "What gives a parent peace and joy? It is to see their children doing well, and finding their place in the world, they are the hope of the future and they will take into the future a part of you with them as they go."  I think this is the perfect statement of what we as parents hope for our children.  


Bless all the mothers today who do so much.  Happy Mother's Day!