Mother's Day 2005

 ~ art by Mary Engelbreit

My only happy recollections of my mother were on Easter Sunday. My brother and I would get new clothes and she would take us to the park. My brother and I would run and play and crack confetti-filled eggshells on our heads. Those few days of my life were the only days I can remember as days of a real childhood without cruelty and without criticism and without physical abuse. In spite of everything that she did and didnt do, her words that I was and will always be nothing cut my life like a knife. My mother never hugged me and she never told me that she loved me. 

When I grew up, I realized that growing up was not a good enough reason to make her change. And so, I consoled myself with scripture, accepted that I had lived the life of an orphan in my own house, but most important, I recognized that I am a child of the King, and if that is so, then life gave me the best of parents: God.

My children were not conceived in love, but I have tried extra hard not to give my children the kind of life that my mother gave me.

Children are a gift. Take time to hug your children today and to tell them they are loved, for that means more than any gift that money can buy.

I have beautiful memories of my children. I hope my children will always have beautiful memories of me.

Psalms 27:10 Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.

Isaiah 49:15 Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you