Happy Mother’s Day! This will be a difficult day for me as this
is the first Mother’s Day that I and my family will experience with our Mother residing
in Heaven. Today is also my Father’s
birthday, so we will be celebrating both life and death this day. My Mom had an intense devotion to Mother
Mary, so while I miss my Mom terribly, I can’t help but smile thinking of her
celebrating this day with the Blessed Mother.
I imagine all the women in heaven gathering for a lovely tea as Mary
shares stories of Jesus as a child.
Those years were not recorded for us, for Mary pondered them in her
heart, but it is great fun to imagine Mary sharing those stories with other
mothers in heaven!
My life has been filled with
wonderful moments created by my mother.
In sharing some of the stories with you, I hope that some of my stories
might trigger a happy memory of your own mother and childhood!
Birthdays ~ We had great
family parties! We were allowed to have
what was then called “slumber parties” for a few of our friends. Oh, the food she would make and the cake! What I now realize is that while she created
wonderful memories for me, this taught me a bigger lesson in life to not get
caught up in materialism. The important
thing about celebrating is being with family and friends, not in the theme or
elaborate setting. The older I get, the
more I understand this lesson.
Vacations ~ our vacations
were also focused on family. My mom
would often apologize to us for not being able to take us on a big fancy
vacation but oh my gosh the fun we had visiting our cousins in Maryland and
Indiana! We thought that was great! Our dad was very involved in the Optimist
Club when we were young, so our vacations were often tagging along with them to
conventions. I do not know how my
mother packed up six children, one husband, and everything needed for the
hospitality room while in heels and looking fabulous the entire time. Geez I can’t hold a candle to that! Like my mom, I carry this guilt that our
younger children have not been to Disney or Universal Studios or Niagara Falls.
Our vacations have been to visit wherever their older brother lives and the
yearly trip to the shores of Lake Erie with the McCue clan. Another life lesson which I am still
learning; it does not matter where you go but who you are with on the
journey.
Mother’s Day ~ as a young
mother it bothered me that my mom was still the one doing all the work on
Mother’s Day! I would be fierce with my
dad, husband and brothers that they should be doing the work. Ah, another life lesson. My mom was all about serving others. Our Mother’s Day celebrations gave her the
chance to once again feed her six children and their families. This is a lesson that I need to learn, for in
my selfishness, I want a day to be served rather than to serve. I pray for the strength to daily remember “it
is better to serve than be served.”
So Mom, thank you for being
such a wonderful Christian Mother, teaching me by word and deed how to walk
like Jesus. To all mothers and
caretakers, thank you for being Jesus to those you love and serve.
Shalom,
Tina
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