I wanted to take a moment and honor my mother. There are many qualities for which I highly respect her, many important life lessons I have learned from her, too many to note in one post. However, here are some of the things that have always stood out to me. My mother is actually a Canadian citizen, and no matter how you may feel about Canada, I at least respect them for my mother's sake. When mom married daddy she gave up everything to follow him to a foreign country (where they serve cold tea instead of hot tea, yuck!) :) Daddy was in the Navy and eight months later he was off to sea and mom was left to manage their home in a land where she knew no one. At the time she was only 23. They began in New York and over the years my mother would live in 7 different states, some of them twice, and experience long deployments, one year we only saw daddy 5 days out of 365. Those times were tough on my mother, but my memories of those days are all pleasant and secure. Even though she was being put through an emotional wringer mom sought to give us children a secure childhood. After daddy retired from the Navy mom continued to stand by him in the midst of great difficulty, many of the biblical stands that my father has taken have brought us much verbal persecution, mostly from those who call themselves Christians. I can specifically remember a time about two years ago, we were in the process of moving and my mother had a terrible accident, which resulted in my baby sister being born 6 weeks early, only a few months later mom again had an accident and tore her rotator cuff as well as giving herself a nasty blood blister the size of a small plate. In the midst of all this my father recieved a letter letting him know that a certain man had taken the liberty of writing a rebuttal against my father for his decision to hold our family accountable to high standards of personal holiness as outlined in scripture. I remember the way daddy's shoulders dropped as he wearily said, "I don't mind if he writes a rebuttal, I just wish he would have picked a better time. There's not even a "we're praying for you" or "how's your wife?" in this letter." Everything in me burned with fire and indignation. Later mom and I saw that man at a funeral we were attending. I wanted to demand to know what gave him the right to be so cruel and heartless to my family, but my mother displayed an attitude of forgiveness. She went up, gave him a hug and asked how he was doing, all with Christian love and grace. Her actions spoke volumes to me and were a humble rebuke. That is the attitude that I have seen my mother constantly live her life with: forgiveness, grace and child-like faith. She has never been bitter at God for the trials He has brought but has embraced them as an opportunity to bring Him glory. For that, I have seen my mother grow and radiate His love. I onced asked mom if she could be remembered for one thing, what would she want that to be? "That I found my sufficiency in Christ. He is my all in all, and that's what I want to be remembered for."
Originally published May 16th
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