A Mother

A mother is kind and compassionate and often says just the right things.
A mother works hard to maintain her home and her sanity.
A mother ensures that her children behave "properly."
A mother is a good listener and usually a good talker.
A mother is a gentle spirit and a dear friend.
A mother teaches letters and numbers and colors and shapes.
A mother teaches aiming straight, sitting backwards and wiping.
A mother does laundry and dishes and dusting and vacuuming.
A mother cleans spilled juice, sticky fingers, toilets and snooty noses.
A mother builds towers, plays babies, flies airplanes and colors Star Wars pages.
A mother is patient beyond measure.
A mother laughs 'til she cries at the silliness of her babies.
A mother loves her children and often defends them even when they are in the wrong.
A mother guides her children, allowing them to make mistakes that sometimes seem rather costly.
A mother does anything to protect her young and would cross the earth for them.
A mother makes unparalleled sacrifices.
A mother jumps for joy at small accomplishments.
A mother weeps alongside her child when they have been hurt or wronged.
A mother gets dirty in the sandbox, dances til she falls and can ignore the messes that abound.
A mother seeks counsel and wisdom from other moms who have been there.
A mother is still a mother, even if she has a child in Heaven.
A mother instructs her children in truth, love, loyalty, righteousness and faith.
A mother's desire is for her children to know Jesus and trust Him as their Savior.

All the while...

A mother loses her cool, her patience and often control.
A mother strives for the best even when it seems that 50% is all she's got.
A mother says I'm sorry and asks for forgiveness... from her children and her husband.
A mother fixes crazy dinners that seem "unbalanced" to any outsiders.
A mother could accidentally ignore the fact that the "zoo animals" are running wild.
A mother just might let her kid pick up their food off of a dirty restaurant floor and proceed to return it to their mouth.
A mother allows chocolate milk, a little Sprite, a few pieces of candy and the occasional cookie...before dinner.
A mother might give in to begging just to achieve a moment of peace and quiet.
A mother might yell when she's had enough.
A mother probably cries at times for no apparent reason.
A mother is probably exhausted and can't wait each day until nap time.
A mother possibly uses the YMCA, not just for exercise but for the few moments without anyone hanging from a limb.
A mother might put toys in the crib for 5 more minutes of sleep or teach a 3-year-old how to turn on the TV and pour his milk or even get up at the crack of dawn to drag herself to work.

A mother might do all of these things and so many more... because I have! But I do them all with love for the ones I am called to serve, to protect, to nurture, to instruct and to lead. I do them all, not always in joy as I should, but always in obedience to our Lord. I stumble and fall daily... but these little people are humbling me in ways I couldn't have ever imagined... and boy, are they watching my every move!

Thank you Jesus for the gift of children- for my Deacon, Maddox, Faith Clare, and this newest little blessing! Thank you for my own mother who has taught me how to be a mother myself, to my mother-in-law who has instructed me in the Lord, to my grandmother who has been there each step of the way, and to my Chilena mother for loving me as her own. Equip me, Father, to be the mother and wife that you have called me to be. Strengthen me in my weakness and fear, that Your Name might be lifted high and glorified all the days of my life. Allow our faith in You to be the legacy of this family!

**Happy Mother's Day to moms with children here, with children in Heaven, with mother's that have gone before and those that deeply long to be mothers. May God bless each of you in this journey He has called you on!

"Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees."- Job 4:4