Honoring Mothers - and Mom's Response

    Mother's Day 2014 has officially passed...well, in 36 minutes, it will have ended.

    If you are a mother, how was your Mother's Day? 

    Glorious? 

    Disappointing? 

    Ho-hum?

    When my girls were little, they were sweetly guided by Daddy to pick out a card and a small gift for me.  Mother's Day was a special day for me.

    As the girls grew a bit older, I found myself having bigger and better expectations of what Mother's Day would be like for me.  You know, breakfast in bed...(yeah, right; it's a busy Sunday morning!)...lots of gifts...everyone picking up after themselves and putting all of the dirty dishes into the dishwasher...lunch or dinner made for me...me sitting on the couch and eating bon bons...and on and on. 

    You've been there, right?

    Unfortunately, the girls didn't have the same expectation for themselves.  They would forget to make a card...or be so busy in their childhood "busyness" that they didn't get around to making it seem like a very special day for me.

    There were even a few Mother's Days where I found myself making my own breakfast while we all rushed to get out the door to go to church.  And I found myself resenting the day a little bit, because I "expected" a lot more than that.

    A couple of years ago, I began to think about the rewards of motherhood.  I have loved being a mom to our two daughters.  They are a joy in my life - every day! 

    But if I set "Mother's Day" too high on a pedestal, as a day to be worshiping me as a mother and meeting my every need and expectation, I am going to be brutally disappointed.

    Instead, I look forward to Mother's Day because I know that some sort of recognition and love will be shown to me.  And I treasure the thought of that, though I know that my girls honor and show love to me almost every day.  :)  I am truly blessed. 

    And I know that even if my family doesn't recognize my efforts, God does.  Serving my family is an incredible gift I am giving to them.  Nurturing and raising our children is a huge ministry that I don't take for granted.

    This Mothers' Day, the girls put some time into planning a special day for me.  ☺

    I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of freshly cut flowers from our backyard, and two delightful homemade cards. 

    I also love these homemade Low-Carb Quick & Healthy Waffles.  But we didn't plan ahead really well, and were out of cottage cheese, so Kelsi and I drove down to the nearby grocery store and bought some cottage cheese this morning so she could make these for us all to enjoy. 

    My parents attend the same church as my family, so I was able to sneak into my mom's adult Bible study class this morning and give her a little orchid corsage.  I love surprising her with pretty things like that.  She deserves it!

    We were blessed with a convicting and God-honoring message from our pastor at church this morning, focusing on the first chapter of the book of Ruth.  I love that part of the Bible!

   

    After visiting with different friends after church, my parents and my family set out to find lunch.  Our first choice, a local Greek restaurant, was closed for Mother's Day.  While we were disappointed, I'm glad that their employees were able to enjoy a nice day away from work so they could spend time with their moms and wives.  ☺  We settled on eating at a gourmet hamburger restaurant and enjoyed taking our time to sit and visit with each other.

    After lunch, we did a couple of little errands around town, and then my husband and girls surprised me with this!

    If you haven't seen "Moms' Night Out", it is a hilariously funny movie - yet is so poignant that it will make some of you cry.  It's totally worth going to see this in the theaters!  Here's a preview of the movie, if you haven't heard of it or haven't seen it yet:

    We had fun watching the movie.  The girls laughed so hard!  But after the movie, one of them said to me, "Mom, has being a mommy been that difficult?  Because if it is going to be like that, I'm scared!"  I giggled.  "Sure, there were some moments like that, but no, our lives have not ever really looked that bad...but for some moms, it might." 

    "Whew!" and a big sigh of relief was heard.  :)

    After the movie ended (around 5:00 p.m.), we came home.     

    The girls begged me to open presents and read through their cards, so I was happy to do that.  Who wouldn't be?  :)

The girls bought me two scarves and some new cosmetics! Fun!

    But the best part of Mother's Day were the homemade cards and sentiments inside them:

    After that, it was back to business for us all.  ☺

  Elmer needed to pay the bills, and the rest of us had some chores to do as well.  Brittany cleaned out the guinea pig cage...Kelsi practiced violin for a couple of hours...and I paid some medical bills and sorted and filed the papers that had stacked up on the kitchen counter.

    Then, we all relaxed the rest of the evening until it was bedtime.

    If your Mother's Day wasn't what you had hoped it to be, please know that God sees your efforts as a mother, and He honors the service and love you provide to your family.  Some day, your family will look back on how you sacrificed for them, and they will treasure you even more. 

    How did your family help you celebrate Mother's Day this year?  Also, what has been your favorite Mother's Day memory?

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