Mother's Day

The weekend has been packed with wonderful memory making events for our family.  It started with a bridal shower for Danielle, which lead into a girls day shopping and spending time together and moved right into celebrating the college graduation of Tonya this morning. In the midst of those  fun times, there certainly were some low periods such as getting Danielle out of the apartment at college with her stuff and the flood of this morning at our house in Richmond.

Since all of the girl folk were already in Huntsville, the men folk  (including Tonya's dad) were to leave early this morning for Huntsville for Tonya's graduation. So as they arose this morning, they were greeted with heavy rain, flooded cars in the street, including the car they were going to take to Huntsville.  It had rained so hard that there was about 3 feet of water in the streets and it appeared very doubtful as to whether they could even get out of the neighborhood.

Darrell rang me at 5:30am letting me know the situation.  I immediately gathered the girl troops there in the apartment and we began to pray.  Within the hour, the guys were on their way, having driven through water up to the hood of our Navigator. Later, Darrell said that after he called us, within about 5 minutes, the rain had slowed down, so much so, they were able to attempt to leave the neighborhood.  We had a miracle as God showed His strength and answered our prayers immediately.

With all of these activities, Mom's Day has seemed just an after thought event.  But when I reflect on how these last couple of days were spent, it has been my day as a mom......spending time with my kids, watching them interact, share, challenge, encourage and a couple of times, at odds with each other.  So I feel blessed to have spent time with all of my children this weekend.  We did miss Trav, our son-n-law and two other grandchildren.

I was sharing with Sonny (a widower since the death of the Sonya and Tonya's mother when they were 8 yrs. old) about fussing at all of the girls, barking out orders regarding packing the car, cleaning the apartment and being ready on time the next morning for graduation.  Sonny's reply was that "that's what moms do". It made me smile, cause I thought he was right.  Just because my girls are all grown now, there are still those moments that the defined relationship of mother and child still have order, roles and boundaries.  No matter how old the children, the mother is still a mother.

So we honor mothers on this special day in all sorts of fashions.  When we lived in Latin America, this particular holiday was very special.  It was a day in which mothers were lavished with gifts such as washers, dryers, refrigs, microwaves and other large ticket items.  When I think back on those types of gifts that I saw given, most were items that eased the load of work in their role as mothers, enabling them to carry on meeting the needs of the family.  I never saw a mother bothered by this and all felt blessed and honored.

So as we are blessed with another Mother's Day with children who are another year older, they are still our babies regardless of how old they are.  Find a quite moment and read the sweet book "Love you forever" by Robert Munsch with some tissues close by and sing over all of your children the repeating phrase in the book....."I will love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I am living, my baby you will be."  That makes us mothers.....regardless of how our children came to us......newborns or nearly grown, they are our babies to be loved forever.

A timely word......

Typically, I am one of those solo runners.  When I am ready to run, I want to hit the road and get going, at my own speed of course.   So when I have had the opportunity to run with any of my girls, I typically feel bad about slowing them down to an old woman's pace.  But I do enjoy having them along, even if I am running in their dust.  Last weekend, Danielle was home from college and asked to run with me.  I reminded her how slow I would be running three miles and she just replied that she really hadn't run in over a month and thought she might find the run difficult.  Can I just say "phooey" to that.   It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't run in two month, the shear difference in our ages (almost 33 yrs) and the fact that she is over 5'11" (I didn't say 6') and I am only 5'5" accounts for an unbalanced event.

We started off together, keeping fairly even pace and finished that first mile with a really good time.  That always happens when I run with the girls.  They push me harder than I would push myself.  But there is something about that second mile.  Danielle began to pull away from me.  I felt my pace slow down  and I felt a little discouraged.  That entire mile was difficult for me.  By the time we started the third, Danielle had slowed enough for me to catch her.  Actually I think she ran back to me at one point.  She began to ask me if I was okay.  Maybe it was the look on my face....one of fatigue.   Throughout that third mile, she stayed right with me, speaking encouragement to me all the way home.
 As a result, I picked up the pace and didn't struggle near as much as in the second mile.

For most of us, we enjoy being independent, striking out on our own.  Call it a cultural breeding....our American heritage.  However, I realized during that run, while I do like to run alone, I am stronger when someone is beside me, encouraging me along the way.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says: "Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." New International Version (©1984)

So I really am never running this race of life alone.  My God is always with me.  He often does use people in our lives to speak His encouragement to us as Danielle did that day.  Proverbs 25:11 says "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances."  New American Standard Bible (©1995)       I feel very fortunate that I have several people in my life that speaks encouragement to me continually.  Many times, it is just the "lift" that I need to finish out the day.  So for the rest of today, look at people through the eyes of Jesus, having compassion and mercy,  see who might need that "lift" as given by a spoken word, a verbal blessing to strengthen the soul.