I've posted this entry before ... but this time it's from a different perspective with a different photo. The photo is from 1983 with me and two of those grandchildren (our daughter Carrie and our son Jonathan) that my mother "hoped for" in the article that follows.
Mother's Day is this coming Sunday. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day as a day for American citizens to honor those mothers whose sons had died in war. The day was soon commercialized to celebrate all mothers. Today it has become the one day that leads all others in flowers, cards, phone calls, and dining out. What's the best gift you could give your mother this Mother's Day? I gave my mom the following story several years ago.
I wish that I a nickel for every time that I heard my mom say, "I hope that I live long enough to ..." I guess that she was concerned that since she was in her forties when I was born that her time would be up before my adult life began to unfold.My mom would say often, "I hope that I live long enough to see you graduate from high school." I’m the last of seven children, born seven years after the sixth. My education was important to my mother. My parents missed the important spiritual foundation in my early years, but thankfully both they and I got involved in church when my dad retired and we moved to Arkansas when I was twelve. At age seventeen, I graduated from high school. A lot of credit must go to my mom.As time passed, my mom started to say, "I hope that I live long enough to see you graduate from college." Well, she did ... four times, in fact. She saw me graduate from college twice and got to see the pictures of me graduating twice from seminary. Her persistence in my childhood education instilled in me the need to continue.While I was in college, mom then started saying, "I hope that I live long enough to see you get married." Well, she did ... in 1975. God gave my wonderful wife who became a wonderful mother to our children. And that leads me to ..After Kay and I married, mom began to say (yep, you guessed it): "I hope that I live long enough to see your first child born." I remember that when we found out we were expecting our first baby, I called home and joked with her, "Mom, if you can hold on for another six months, you can die a happy woman!" She not only "held on" for the first baby, but she saw our second one born, too! My mom took great joy in her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
My mother passed away several years ago. End of story? Not quite. I think that if she could speak now she might say something like this. "I hope that while you live, you not only hope for things to come to pass but you do the things that pass along hope to your children." For a lady who, at age 40, began to "hope" a lot for me, she "did" a lot for me in the years before her death.I hope you have a blessed Mother’s Day. I will because of what my mom hoped would come to pass in my life. And, even more, I will because I know that some day I will see my mother again in God’s eternal Heaven because we both trusted Him. She wrote an account of her salvation experience for me years ago. It's framed with her picture in my office. Write an account of yours and send it to your mom. She'll think it's one of the best Mother's Day gifts ever.
This is more than just one pastor's perspective. This is one son's blessing. Thanks, mom.
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