Today is Mother’s Day, but in fact it should read, Today is
a Celebration of Motherhood. Why?
Because every day is mother’s day. We know
that, it is a given. Every day it is her day to be engaged in a roll of
incredible variety. Listening to a sermon this morning the speaker used the
antidote of all that a mother does and what she is actually worth if each of
her job titles were for pay; $300.00.00 a year. His point being is that if in choosing
to stay at home to be a mother she doesn’t work is completely wrong.
There are mothers today at all different stages of
mothering. Some have just recently given birth, so new at it they have not even
had time to make one mistake yet. Some mother’s have been at it for a few years
and are just now getting a handle on the task. Some have been at it for years
and could offer their wisdom from a place of experience.
I thought about being a mother and being the child of a
mother while listening to this sermon and how much importance a mother holds in
their child’s life. It is a daunting task, if it is taken seriously. I don’t know of a serious loving mother who
has not looked back and wondered if they did the right thing by their children/child.
Knowing they made mistakes along the way and how those mistakes might have
affected or even marked their children for life.
There is an antidote for making mistakes, “No one is
perfect.” True as this is, I think that the one thing that needs to be said by
all mother’s to their children, if in fact it is completely true, is this, “Please
know that any mistakes I made raising you were not intentional and everything I
did, I did with one thing in mind, your
good.” I believe if any new mother asked me what was the one thing I could tell
her to spare her fear of making mistakes along her path of motherhood is just
that. “If everything in you comes from an honest genuine love of what is the
very best for your child, then you can not go wrong.”
How many times has it been said, “But at the time I thought
I was doing what was best for you.” Years give us, on the child side, the wisdom
to know what our mother meant. Knowing that her judgment call for me came from
that very place of ‘for MY good’ comes to light as I grow older.
I’d rather see mistakes a mother makes coming from a heart
where the foundational motivation is for the very best of her child, than to
see a mother doing what looks right that is motivated by what makes her feel
good about herself and how she looks as a mother. There is a BIG difference.
We all know the line, “any man can father a child, but it
takes a real man to be a Dad.”
Well, it is even truer for a woman. “Just being able to give
birth to a child isn’t what makes a woman a mother. It is something so much
deeper and almost indescribable at times what a woman feels when she holds that
brand new baby in her arms knowing that at that moment she has yet to have
colored in one line of its life.
If I could wish anything for the world today on Mother’s Day,
it would be that all the mothering being done would come from hearts motivated
by one thing and one thing only – for the good of the child.
I wish a Happy Mother’s Day to every woman who is or was
actively enrolled in the school of motherhood however means the privilege came
to them. For you,
be it by birth, adoption, choice or appointed.
