Happy Birthday to my mentor, my hero, my friend – MOM

Today is my mom’s 65th birthday. I don’t think she’d mind me revealing her age, as she clearly looks 50 rather than 65! It didn’t occur to me until recently that my mom is one of my heroes. I considered her a good mom, a role model, a friend, but not until I knew how monumental the task of being a Christ-following mother was, did I consider her to be my hero as well.

Heroes are brave and charge into battle despite huge obstacles. I have lots of heroes. I admire Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, the founders of America, the abolitionists, the suffragettes of the early 20th century, missionaries, soldiers. I count my father as one of my heroes too. Glimpsing the life of a pastor as I did, I know it takes a brave person to lead and give vision to a church. Church is at best a glimpse of God’s present and future kingdom, and at worst a whining bunch of elitist hypocrites. It takes grace and strength to keep the scales tipping at the positive end.

But, for some reason I hadn’t thought of Mom as a hero – until now. I underestimated the strength of character it took to be a Christ follower and a mother. Mothering is definitely rewarding – but there are battlefronts nonetheless. It’s a 24/7 job that requires grace, sustenance and wisdom. As I thought of her influence on my mothering, I realized, with great humility, how incredibly blessed I’ve been. When I “go to the vault” for examples of wise and loving mothering, I have nothing but positive ones. When I became a mom, there wasn’t anything I had to “unlearn” in order to do the job well. There were no negative behavior patterns modeled for me, no hours spent in therapy extricating bad habits from good ones. None of that. All I had/have are good behaviors/ideas to copy. That’s truly something. I’m not worthy of such a blessing.

She would be the first to say that she’s not the perfect mother. And, yes, she made mistakes. But a miss-step here and there is nothing like a lifetime of overcoming negative modeling. I’ve had the privilege to take what I’ve been given and make it my own. So, I don’t debone whole chickens, and I don’t drive to Phoenix to dump my extra-recycling that Scottsdale didn’t take, and I don’t wash my Ziploc bags to reuse. (yes, she does those things :0) But I do like large purses with pockets, and I do save tissue paper, and I’m learning to let go of my chores and give my girls more demonstrative love – to let go of my lists in favor of relationships.

Thanks Mom for taking care of yourself so you could raise us. Thanks for always consulting your Heavenly Father in your parenting endeavors. Happy Birthday! You’re one of the bravest heroes I know! I love you.