Happy Mother's Day to a Most Amazing Woman

« Meaningful Mondays »

Of course I am tempted to start out with the cliché saying that I have the best mother in the world and mine is better than yours. But no, while I still may think that, mothers are not to be compared but rather praised simply for who they are. God knew we all needed different mothers with different strengths and weaknesses to teach us different things throughout life.

I honestly do not know how my mother does it. She is literally amazing. Somehow she manages to teach school to seven kids, she cleans, she cooks, she watches two adorable toddlers, she councils dad, she hardly freaks out about all the things that don’t go as planned each day, she makes everyone laugh, and somehow she manages to stay composed without pulling her hair out. And she does all of this each day. But I do not want to focus on all the “busy” things she does throughout the day but rather the women behind the actions. The reasons she does what she does every day without fail.

She is a woman full of sacrifice. Each day she gets up early to make breakfast for all of us famished animals. She chose to homeschool all seven of us for 13 years without fail. She could have created a career and gone after the world’s view of success, but no, she decided to be a mother and man am I thankful for that.

She never gets her nails done and drives us all around the country to wherever we want to go instead of going on a girl’s date (which she needs to go more often). She spends all of her time, her resources, her energy, she heart, and her life pouring into her family. Each moment she makes a selfless decision to bless someone else rather than giving into desires for self-comfort.

^ This is our relationship ^

She is a selfless woman full of humility. I have never seen anyone do the things she has done and gone through the situations she has witnessed and come out as graceful and selfless as she is. She is a woman clothed in Christ rather than expensive price tags and a fake image. Her beauty is in her heart. And her heart is the size of a mountain. All the love that she selfless gives to just her kids and husband each day is amazing. And it doesn’t stop there but she uses each opportunity to bless someone else with an encouraging note, a meal she prepared, or a kind word. She hardly ever does something that she actually wants to do but rather seeks out opportunities to serve others.

She has a servant’s heart. She never seeks to be recognized for what she does but is content with being in the background, serving away (well sorry, not getting away with that this year). She throws her whole heart into everything and finds her worth solely in Christ.

She is wise. My goodness, so very wise. I come to her at least once every week and explode into an explanation of how my life is going to fall apart. But, within moments she calms me down and puts things back into perspective. She is a constant encouragement to me. I know that if mom can make it through the day, there is no doubt that I can. The Spirit never fails to work through her to get to me.

She is a woman of commitment. She is committed to her husband who she faithfully loves no matter how much of a dork he is. She is committed to walking with Christ and raising her children. She is committed to showing everyone she meets a little bit of Jesus.

This kind of comes close to how crazy we are

She is my friend. As an 8 year-old I never thought of my mom as being my friend. Now I wouldn’t know what to do if she wasn’t my friend. We talk, we laugh, we pray, we cry, we encourage each other, and most importantly we love. We love each other and Christ. It is a blessing to have gained another friend that I know will never judge me or turn their back on me.

She is strong. She is an encourager. She is modest. She is a life giver. She is a Proverbs 31 woman.

Proverbs 31:25-29, “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teachings of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.” (NASAB)

And to all the other mothers and godly women who have also impacted my life, thank you. Just because you never had kids or do not yet does not mean that you are not a momma to someone. Women are designed to nurture and love on kids. Thank you to my mother’s friends who are like my second mom, my teachers, instructors, coaches, youth group leaders, the list is long of women who have left an imprint on my heart that will forever remain. Thank you all for being wonderful, God filled role models.

I feel like I still cannot completely put into words exactly how I feel about my mom, she is simply incredible. I hope one day I will be at least half the woman and mother that she is. She is inspirational, full of wisdom, absolutely adorable, completely hilarious and full of life, she bears the weights of this world with grace, she lets the love and light of Christ shine through her in everyone she interacts with, SHE IS GOLDEN.

Proverbs 31: 10, “An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far beyond jewels.” (NASAB)

 And I know she is golden only because of the Christ living within her.

When spring and summer roll around and she forgets to plant flowers, dad and I remind her that she was met to raise children not plants. And can I get an AMEN to that?! ;)

7 of her blessings

I love you with all my heart, Mommy!

~Gracie