Well, the annual homage to mother is back this Sunday and its anniversary is expected to escalate in commercial significance again as in years past. It is a wonderful season for greeting card companies, retail stores, flower shops, telephone companies and publications that feature ads for moms. Facebook messaging and Tweeting will doubtless be at an all time high.
But, I won’t be buying a gift for my mother this year because, 14 years ago, her job as my mother ended due to her death from cancer. But I still fondly remember her and profoundly miss her.
I remember Sister Poseline — her church name — as a dominant teacher to me and my brother. My mother taught us logic. We’d ask why we had to do something and she’d respond, “Because I said so, that’s why." She taught us foresight. She would say, "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident." And, wow, how she taught us irony. I remember her saying many times as she had to whip us, “Keep crying and I’ll give you something to cry about."
I remember her as a devoted wife. She was one who had the confidence of her husband and she constantly and consistently sought his welfare and definitely enhanced his reputation.
She was a diligent partner. As a woman with a holy church-centered viewpoint, she was a willing worker, a wise shopper and wonderful planner who was able to minister to her family because she kept herself fit spiritually and emotionally.
She was a dutiful servant to the needy and the others who needed assistance. She had a vision for ministry not only to her family but to her friends and neighbors alike.
She was a dependable mother. She was devoted to the needs of her family and especially her two boys. She was well groomed, organized, and disciplined and, as such, is a testimony to the both of us, her god-children and Sunday school students.
So, as I reflect on the ways my mother’s life impacted me, I pray that others’ lives are impacted similarly and that appreciation is shown by all children who have mothers still with them. I pray that lives are dramatically changed, positive relationships pronounced and attitudes correctly adjusted for this season of blessings from the Lord as relationships with mothers and mother figures are renewed.
Gracious Lord:
I lovingly present all mothers to you and ask your blessings upon them all. I pray and ask your blessings on those who became mothers through planned parenthood and I pray also for those who became mothers through accident. I pray for those who are mothers to children who are adopted and those who are abused. I pray for foster-care mothers and mothers whose children are beaten and battered.
I pray for mothers who cry incessantly because of insufficient food or comfort for their children. I pray for mothers who have no idea who the father of their children is. I pray for mothers whose emotions are not stable, whose finances are lacking and where faith is shattered.
I pray for grandmothers who are mothers again because the grandchildren’s mother is in jail, on drugs or even dead. I pray for mothers who neglect their own children because they were themselves neglected.
I lift up to you those mothers who try with every fiber of their strength to obey the Word of God and raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I pray for mothers who remain too quiet to let others know when they are hurting physically and emotionally.
I pray for mothers of special-needs children, mothers with no support and mothers too sick to be present in the lives of their children. I pray for mothers too young to understand motherhood, too immature to correctly teach children and too stubborn to learn. I pray for mothers whose children are under the care of the state.
Finally, I pray that your will is done in the lives of mothers all over, so that future generations of God-fearing, law-abiding, respectable, worshipping, working children will abound.
Amen.
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