Day 3

(I promise my post titles will grow more descriptive... but I'm setting a pattern).

Today is Mother's Day.  In many ways, today is just another corporate holiday designed to grow our economy by 75 basis points.  Today is a day in which we buy our mothers another picture frame, or a bouquet of flowers... when we make her breakfast in bed and give her a gift certificate for a massage she will not find the time to use.  Today is the day I came home from the hospital as a baby: May 13, 1978.  The latest date Mother's Day can occur.

But today is Mother's Day.  Some of us, despite a holiday, would remember to make the mothers in our lives feel special, to take them out for Olive Garden, to wash their cars and mow their lawns, to make them laugh and weep at the same time while looking at baby pictures.  Most of us wouldn't, thought, as most of us (myself included) take our mothers for granted; we just assume they'll be there.

Thank God (or Hallmark) that we have Mother's Day to remind us that, despite their unconditional willingness to fold our socks, cheer us to victory, and bandage our wounds, what they do is hard work, and it needs to be recognized.

The amazing thing about mothers is that most of us have more than one.  Even orphans have a mother or two they can present if hard pressed.  At 35, I have more mothers than I can count, all of whom remind me to wash behind my ears, to drive safe, to be respectful.  I'm still blessed to have my birth mother.  She beams with joy whenever she has the chance to mention Grayson; that is such a wonderful kind of love. 

There is Mama J who jokes with me as the choir moves from the altar to the pews. 

There is my mother-in-law who winks at me when she speaks, like she suspects I'm the only person in the room at that moment who understands what she is saying.

There are best friends who, during adolescence, teach me how to be cool without compromising who I am and what I stand for.

There are teachers who have taken me down a peg or two (Pumba) or who hold me up (Cherry) when I need it the most.

There are ministers who won't be mentioned here.  (Peter will eventually win this argument about youth group and camp... just not on the 3rd day.)

There is my wife who shows me every day what it means to be a mother, full of love for our son, who challenges me to be the best father I can be.  She reminds me that I'm not the center of my own universe, that sometimes bath time is the most important time of the day.  She reminds me to wash behind my ears.

Today is Mother's Day, but it might as well be called Thanksgiving... for without our mothers, who would we be thankful for?  And how would we know to be thankful in the first place.

Happy Day of Moms!