As Mother's Day Approaches

As we approach Mother's Day, I find myself thinking a lot about about my mother and my grandmother, two of the women I admired most in all the world! How I miss them both! Each time I think of them, some verses from Proverbs 31 come to mind:

"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her." (Proverbs 31:25-28 NASB)

As I do each year when Mother's Day comes around, I celebrate the joy of being a mother and a grandmother. I'm so thankful for the blessing of my sons, the sons God gave me, the ones the doctors said I would never have. I'm loving my role as Nana, being grandmother to two precious no-longer-little boys who are growing into young men and who bring me so much joy! I'm celebrating the mothers of those little boys, the daughters who came into my life because they are the women my sons chose, the women who love my sons. I celebrate the joy they each bring to our family, their unique personalities and gifts, and the blessing they are to all of us.

On Mother's Day, I celebrate my mother and my grandmother, and the countless grandmothers before them that I never knew, as well as those daughters who are now part of my life, all love the Lord and His Word, and I celebrate the commitment of each of those women to teach His Word and His ways diligently. I celebrate our commitment to have families who love Jesus. I celebrate our desire to honor Him in all we do and say.

My prayer for each of is that we be found faithful. There's a song called "Find Us Faithful" that talks about this concept: May all who come behind us find us faithful, may the fire of our devotion light their way, may the footprints that we leave lead them to believe.*

I'm thankful for the women who went before me who were found faithful, who left those kind of footprints. I'm praying that I will be found faithful, that the fire of my devotion will light the way for those who come behind me. I'm praying that I will love the Lord with ALL my heart and soul and mind. That my love will be evidenced in my behavior. That I will leave for my sons and my daughters and my grandsons, and all who follow behind me, a legacy of that kind of devotion to the Lord. That I will teach that diligently to my children and my grandchildren. That my sons and daughters will teach those things diligently to their children. I'm celebrating what God will do in and through us when we commit ourselves completely to Him.

And I am so thankful that I had a Mother and a Grandmother who modeled that kind of love and devotion.

 

L-R, my great-grandmother, Leona Harwell Knox; my mother, Helen Neil Austin, me, and my grandmother, Ethel Knox Neil


"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."  (Proverbs 31:30 NASB)


*Find Us Faithful: words and music by Jon Mohr