It’s my mom’s 56th birthday today!! She has been married for 38 years, has had 8 children naturally (5 at home and 3 at a birthing clinic). She worked as a Licensed Midwife on and off for 10 years. She currently has 15 grandchildren (we’re waiting to see who gets pregnant next;)), and lives just a few hours from me! 😀
If you are wondering what makes her so special, since she’s not your mom, let me explain-
There are some girls that feel every woman should make sure to accomplish her dreams and goals and have things they are doing, because someday those kids they’re raising are going to be gone. That’s awesome in and of itself, but some of them also feel that being a wife and a mother are great things, but just not enough. Think about that. You’re raising the next generation of Christ-followers and giving your heart and flesh to your husband, but that’s not enough. What they don’t understand is that being a wife and a mother is not a part of your life or some side thing you do when you’re not too busy trying to build your career. Your career is the thing on the side. You may love it, but it doesn’t take 1st priority.
Let me clarify- it’s not that you can’t work or have dreams or do anything besides be a wife and a mother. By all means, Proverbs 31 talks about a virtuous woman working hard for her household. What I’m getting at is that everything else stops being as important as taking care of your family. They take the priority in your life, just like the Lord puts his Bride as a priority. Your dreams, your wants and desires- they are not as important as the world wants us to believe they are. In God’s Kingdom, you put Him and others before yourself.
Here’s where my mom comes in 🙂
Who is my mother? Well, depending on who you asked, you might get some different answers. To my dad she is his one and only. The person he walks through life hand in hand with. To her friends from the CMA, she’s one of the coolest (and one of the classiest I might add!) biker babes around. To the countless people she and my dad have welcomed into their home for indefinite periods of time, she is a counselor and a listening ear, without judgement or gossip- simply wisdom. To my friends, she was a cool mom and someone they had fun with. To me and my siblings, she is and has always been the true definition of a mother. She was there EVERY DAY teaching us, disciplining us, loving us, in the best imperfect way she could. She put my dad as her top priority, second only to God, and us kids were the very next priority to her. Even now, she continues the role of a mother in giving us support and counsel in our adult lives, and encouragement where we need it. She had her loves, her dreams, and her midwifery job, but all of that took second place to something she believed was much more important.
If you asked my mom who she was, she’d probably sigh and say “a little mixed up, and I have no idea what’s going on or where I’m going half the time but the Lord is my strength and my rock” and then she’d laugh at herself and go ride her motorcycle. 🙂 She doesn’t put as much confidence in herself as I put in her. She’s amazing. She spent years…. YEARS I SAID, being pregnant, nursing and changing diapers. For every time I can recall a reason I didn’t like my childhood, I can recall many more reasons why I loved it and was so blessed to have the mom and dad I did. They put in the work. They loved at all times, not just when it was convenient, whether that love looked like a swat in the rear, or an ice cream at Baskin Robbins. 🙂
The years have come and go, and my mom is still there for me, just further away then when I was a kid, and I don’t know how she did it, but I know I was blessed with a strong, loving, intelligent, and forgiving mom. She handles hurtful circumstances with grace and mercy, and I’ve never seen the past keep her heart from continuing to love. She dresses like a lady, but she’s no wallflower when it comes to fun! There are so many reasons why I love her, I absolutely could not fit it into one blog post 🙂
She truly is the most incredible woman I know. Her children, just like in Proverbs 31, rise up and praise her saying, many women have done virtuously but you outdid them all.
*The years have only increased your beauty Momma, and your beauty goes deep to your soul. I love you with all my heart, and now knowing only a fraction of what you gave for us kids, I am so extremely grateful for every day you courageously kept walking on in faith<3 Happy birthday! 🙂 *
Young Wife Chronicles 