Mother's Day weekend was this past weekend, and I failed horribly at planning ahead when it came to honoring my mom. In fact, I never truly got around to planning at all. I came home for nearly three whole days and let the pleasure of my presence be her gift. I never even got a card...fail.
About the only thing I did give her was the opportunity to actually be a mother: I came home sick. So on a weekend that should have been spent pampering her, I was fully on the receiving end when it comes to being blessed.
She cooked three delicious, healthy meals.
She had stocked up on my favorite cereal.
She let me break in her new Neti Pot.
She went to the store for juice and candles.
She helped me candle my ears.
She took a cold shower on Mother's Day morning because I had hogged all the hot water.
She stayed home from her church commitment to lay out with me even though I dozed a time or two.
She never got a total break from doing dishes the entire weekend.
She went on a 4 mile walk with me on Monday afternoon and arranged her to do list and eating schedule to match mine.
She vacuumed and washed my car.
She refused to let me help with my car and told me to work on whatever else I needed to do.
She helped fold my clothes.
She opened the refrigerator and pantry and said, "Please! Take whatever you will eat!" as I was packing to leave.
She took down her decorative crosses from the walls of her home so that I could hang them in my hodgepodge room.
And she would have filled up my gas tank if she could read the digital indicators in my car to know that I needed it.
Seriously?
No one on earth loves me so well.
She sees and receives the brunt of my sin, but you would never know it by the way she treats me and values me.
Love like that flows from one Heart alone. Only my Heavenly Father has loved me more extravagantly, more completely, more unconditionally, more ridiculously.
I truly cannot express in words the picture of the Gospel that I see in her. Even if I did not know the details of the redemptive work God has performed in her, I would know she has been changed by His love because of the way she loves and serves others.
I pray I am more like her toward everyone around me. My roommates. My families. My friends. My church. My neighbors.
And I pray that one day I may love my own family as well as she loves hers. I pray her legacy is one that I pass to my daughters and granddaughters. Not because Sally Lawrence is necessarily a name to remember, but because the name of Jesus is the one proclaimed by her life. His love is her legacy. And that is all I want for my own.
I love you, Mommy.
***Daddy, you know I love you too and think you're wonderful...it just isn't Father's Day...yet :)***
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