Moms of All Kinds

courtesy of Sela Photography

Moms come with a variety of personalities, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. We have stay at home moms, career moms, creative-artistic moms, logical-analytical moms, moms who bake and others who buy readymade. Some moms love the Lord and are compassionate and nurturing, others are gruff and distant. But every mom, no matter how dysfunctional, is a blessing in some way or other. This Sunday is a day to thank God for who they are and how they have blessed us—even if only for the gift of life.

My mom was not a stay at home, cookies and milk mom, but I remember experimenting with my Easy Bake oven and chattering away at her while she made dinner. My mom was a well educated, high powered career woman, and busy at church. But she was always approachable when I needed to talk, and I had fun helping in her three year old's Sunday school class as a teenager. 

She didn’t tell me I had to read the Bible every day, but she always tucked an age-appropriate devotional into my Christmas stocking. When I was in high school I began going to the family room where she read her Bible each morning. Her example was one of JOY in the Word of God. So I started drinking coffee like her and reading my Bible every day. Since she was a reference librarian and lover of books, she always brought home other delightful books and magazines on whatever each of us were interested in.

When I had babies she didn’t ask to babysit or keep my girls overnight, but she always had toys at her house—Fifi, the milk wagon, assorted books. She stopped by our house often, and has developed relationships with each of her grandchildren, loving and praying for them daily. Now she is also Mom to three son-in-laws and her granddaughters’ husbands. She’s establishing relationships with great grandchildren, and is “Mom” to a host of missionaries and others who look to her for wisdom, prayer, and kindness.  

There was a time when I didn’t see or appreciate all this about her. I had a picture in my head of what a mom should be. I selfishly wanted her at my beck and call, not taking into account her passions, needs, and giftings. Now that I’m a mom and grandma, I treasure all she is and all she’s poured into my life. She continues to bless me and a growing throng of others. I’m grateful God gave me just the right mom.

I’m also grateful my daughters, sons in law, step kids, and grandchildren show understanding and appreciation for who I am, not who they wish I was. I am free to be myself—creative, quirky, a lover of God and nature, a bookworm, baker of sweet treats, and a bit of a neat freak.  Their acceptance frees me to love them to the best of my abilities, even if they might sometimes wish I was a little more of this, and a little less of that.

I encourage you to shower love and appreciation on the moms in your life this Sunday, and beyond. God created them to be one of a kind, unique, and beautiful. Tell them what you love about them and how they have blessed and continue to bless your life. So many of us have insecurities about all we are not; it’s wonderful to hear some things we’ve done right.

Happy Mother’s Day!

#mothersday #appreciatingmom #whatkindofmom #iloveyoumom #whatsgoodaboutmothers