A Tribute to My Mother

I have been working in retail as a cashier since November. Being a cashier means that I work by Point-of-Sale displays that usually hold magazines that are mostly full of amazing looking food. While I am not sure that the displays are working on our customers, they do work on me seeing as I now own two food magazines that I did not before and am considering buying a third. This past week I decided it was time to try one of these recipes and so I told my mom that I wanted to cook. We figured out a night, decided on a recipe, and I settled in to make steak tips in red wine butter sauce with a side of asparagus and Parmesan potatoes. The magazine boasted that each recipe took 30 minutes. Since my mom had to work that night and not everything goes right the first time you tackle a new recipe, I started cooking at 4:30 in hopes of being done in an hour. After chopping, searing, grating, baking, and seasoning 6:20 rolled around with my mom leaving for work hungry and me working to pull the last bits together only to discover that by the time the potatoes came out of the oven the meat needed to go back in because it was cold. By the time my two younger brothers, my dad and I sat down to eat I had decided two things. One is that the magazine lied. Delicious, yes! 30 minutes, no! And two, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was go to my room. As my brother began to clean up the kitchen for me, I realized that this is what my mom has been doing our whole lives with one huge difference: she has done it knowing that after dinner there is laundry and after that bathes and after that dishes and after that work and after that sleep and after that we do it again. I was tired after one two hour stretch of what my mom has been doing for 29 years now. If the extent of her commitment stopped there it would still be amazing but it doesn't because my mom has also been committed to discovering adventures of all kinds as well. She is the master discoverer of unconventional fun which has included float trips to the river, visits to a ghost town turned bed and breakfast, hobo breakfasts in parking lots, and the list goes on. My mom has taught me that mothering is a constant call to loving and giving and though she is often tired at the end of the day, she is also joyous at the rewards of her commitment which include children and a husband that truly delight in her and desire to bless her in return. There seems to be no limit to my mother's excellence but before I go to far and misplace the praise it is important to clarify that my mother is the women she is because of the Lord. Because she seeks him and because he is faithful to work in her that she would be more like him. So of all the things that I have listed, what my mother has modeled most is the results of an active, intimate relationship with the Lord. If you are reading this as a mother, take heart! If you are faithful to raise your children according to the Word of God the blessings are many and he will give you strength through every obstacle. If you are reading this in the same position as I am writing it meaning that you are not yet a mother, draw into Jesus for he is what cultivates excellence in all things. If you are my mother, thank you!

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting,

but a women who fears the Lord is to be praised!

Honor her for all that her hands have done,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:30-31