Mothers

What if I could speak all languages of humans and of angels?
If I did not love others,
I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal …

When we were children, we thought and reasoned as children do.
But when we grew up, we quit our childish ways …

For now there are faith, hope, and love.
But of these three, the greatest is love.          1 Corinthians 13:1, 11, 13

This isn’t a devotion just for mothers. It’s not just for women. It’s about everyone who has an influence over a child. That covers everyone.

This weekend is a time to celebrate mothers. It can be a wonderfully joyous day filled with laughter, good food, memorable cards, and the outpouring of love. It can also be painful if you have recently suffered through the loss of your mother or your child or maybe your memories and relationship with your mother is estranged.

A few years ago I did a word study through the Bible on “father.” It took me several weeks on that initial study to look up all the passages that mentioned ‘father’ and follow the path of each in its context. Do you know what I found out? God is my Father but He is big enough to also have some characteristics that I usually associated with “mother.” His tenderness, compassion, and willingness to sacrifice what was most precious to His heart in order to save His children, it all sounded like a mother to me. And so I learned about being a mother also in my study. I continue to study and continue to learn more.

Being a mother is not about biology. Just because I can give birth to a child does not make me a mother. It is about setting aside my wants and even needs in order to nurture and care for a child. I have friends who have not had a child themselves and yet they have influenced my children and others with their encouragement and talents and naturally flowing love. I am grateful for their willingness to give. I also know women who have had children and it just does not seem to be in them to set aside their wants in order to care for the wonderful gifts they have been given. Their children are burdens to them and take away the attention they feel they deserve. It is sad to see what they are missing and how their children keep hoping for just a crumb of unconditional love.

This weekend, reach out and bless the ‘mothers’ in your life. Don’t get stressed about how perfect or how big the gift is but make it a gift from your heart. It could be as simple as a telephone call with the opportunity to say, “I love you, Mom. Thank you for _________ .” And pour out some unexpected love on someone who has been a loving mom to you even though they did not give birth to you. Let us teach our children how loving our mothers isn’t just on Mother’s Day but every day.

Mama’s Song written by Luke Laird and Carrie Underwood who also sings it