A Source of Love

I am grateful and look forward to witnessing another Mother's Day this Sunday. I think of the many things that my mother, Carolyn F. King, meant to me. I remember being warmed by her loving spirit, enhanced by her knowledge and viewpoint about a wide range of topics, world events, and life lessons and the belly laughs given by her humorous perspectives on people and situations that she shared with me.

My mother experienced a steady and heavy dose of racism and marginalization growing up in Mississippi as a Black girl, teen, and young adult woman. She faced a different kind of racism and marginalization when she moved to Chicago with my father in the late 1940s that was just as dehumanizing and hurtful to her. However, I saw her strength and courage through God's overcoming love, shine through her pain and hurt, especially as I witnessed some of that horrible behavior during times when we were together while I was growing up.

To see my mother continue to be a source of love, sweetness, knowledge, strength, and humor as she deeply loved, cared for, and supported my father, as well as blessed and mothered my three brothers, two sisters, and me, was a testament of how God makes something beautiful out of a life lived as a model of Christ's love and sacrifice for all of us. I am thankful to God for giving me such a great mother, including her missteps and deficits because it is through both her blessings and blunders that I have come to believe that I too can model Christ's love despite my inadequacies and errors.

What comes to your mind when you think of your mother, or that person who mothered you the most in your life? No mother or mother figure is without faults and failures, and neither are we.

Consider what your mother or mother figure means to you and tell her or that person how you feel. If your mother or mother figure is no longer living, tell somebody you care about what you remember most that positively affected you about your mother or mother figure as an honor including the other signs of love and care you may give on Mother's Day and every other day.

"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue."  -  Proverbs 31:26 NRSV

"Dear Lord, we humbly come before you today giving thanks for the gift of motherhood. Thank you for the special role that mothers play in our lives. Today, we want to celebrate them and all they do for us. Thank You, Lord, for their unconditional, faithful love and sacrifice. We pray that they will be blessed with good health, happiness, and peace of mind. We ask that You would grant them wisdom, strength, and courage as they meet the unique challenges of motherhood. O God, bless them abundantly for all they do. May they feel Your nearness and know Your peace. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen."  - christian.net