Sunday was Mother’s Day.
I hope your day included celebration and honor for someone wonderful.
If your mother is still with you, if she is still living, I hope your day encouraged and included her in some way.
Mother’s Day is more than just a date on the calendar. It’s not a made-up, artificial holiday. It is a heartfelt opportunity to pause, reflect, and celebrate the incredible women who shape our lives with love, sacrifice, and strength. Whether they are our biological, adoptive, step, or chosen mothers, mothers hold a unique place in our hearts and communities. They have a special assignment and ability to guide us through life’s most profound moments. If we allow them, they will be there for our hardest struggles and our most joyful celebrations. They will be there for the moments that others may avoid.
While Mother’s Day offers a special focused opportunity for celebration, honoring mothers shouldn’t be confined to just one day a year. Mothering is a 24/7/365 job, so finding ways to show gratitude all year long is a very rewarding strategy that blesses both mother and child. Yes, no matter your age, you are her child for a lifetime. Small acts of gratitude – like a thoughtful message, helping out with daily tasks, or spending quality time – can speak volumes to her. Listening to her concerns and opinion, respecting her experiences and input, and simply being present, sharing unrushed time, are powerful ways to show honor, respect, and love.
A mother’s love is most often the first we experience and the one we carry with us for a lifetime. It’s in her comforting words after a tough day, the late-night care during sickness, and the quiet sacrifices made daily without expectation of recognition. This kind of love lays the foundation for who we become. Our experiences with our mothers often are the ones that tie us to the love of God in our earliest years. They are most often the ones who pursue us with their prayers and refuse to give up hope.
Mothers are incredible people. My mother was. My wife is. I know so many wonderful women.
None of them are perfect, but they bring and give so very much.
None of us, their children, are perfect either. But if you have had one of those wonderful moms who put your welfare before her own, who taught you the basic skills of life, who loved you the best she knew how – you owe her a tremendous gift.
Last Sunday was Mother’s Day. Why don’t you make today a mini-Mother’s day as well and show her some love and honor today?