It’s weird how Mother’s Day changes over the years.
When we’re kids, it’s the day we get to give Mom all the presents Dad bought. Then we start to buy our own as we celebrate a day that is a holiday just because.
I remember at one point when I was a kid thinking that it was unfair that mothers and fathers get a day but kids didn’t. After all, mom is mom. It’s just who she is.
Now I’m an adult, and I understand a bit more. I understand that mom isn’t just a title; it’s a choice.
It’s a choice every day to put someone else’s needs first.
It’s a choice to open your heart so wide that it could crush you should it break.
It’s a choice to put your comforts and pleasures aside in order to advance someone else’s.
And it’s a choice to be the rock in someone else’s little world.
Growing up, I always thought that mom was just a given. I lived in a little world, and that world was simple. Moms and Dads were there. They always protected. They always respected. They were our greatest gifts from God.
But tonight as I sit here watching my girls glowing from the time they spent with their grandparents this weekend, I am reminded that moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas are a gift from God, but they also are a gift of themselves from themselves.
They spent their lives loving me, and now they are spending their lives loving me and my kids. Just as they were always my rock as I was a child, now they are there for my children as well. No one loves a child like a parent. And that includes grandparents. Because they love in their own special, remarkable way.
So to my mom, I would like to say thank you. Not so much for being a mother. God made you that. But more so for being Mom. For taking that responsibility and for honoring it and in doing so, teaching me how to do the same for my girls. For saying yes to the challenges and the struggles. For carrying on when you got tired. For finding joy through the whole process. And for letting your love be the rock in my life for all of those years.
Being a mom is a choice. If we forget that, we forget the very real decision our mothers have made to help mold us into the people that we are.
There’s no magic about it. There’s no mystery. It’s just women choosing to let their love guide their lives to make a world whole for their beloved. Women choosing sacrifice over comfort. And in doing so, making the world a better place for all the lives they touch.
Happy Mother’s Day Mom! The girls look adorable in their pajamas 🙂
