Taking seriously Mothers’ Day

This week I looked over my past blogs and realized that I missed many mothers’ days.  (our church bulletin blogs are archived on our website J)

It was only in 2008 that I paid attention to the Mothers’ Day celebration.  In the years prior my focus was more on other things, evangelism, evaluating church, things to do in community.  I remember it was Don Topper talking to me that we must not ignore opportunities in the civic calendar to connect with people.   2008 blog was more an appeal for mothers to make our church more loving J. The next mother’s day blog I wrote was in 2011, sharing some history and the roots of celebrating mothers, and inviting all not to forget preparing for mother’s day.  Last year our blogs were focused on praying for the world, giving info on countries each week, so mothers’ day was skipped.  I hope today’s reflections would encourage you to invest in spending time with your mom, to give more attention to a mother in your life tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the 99^th Mothers Day, officially.   When in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed the orders that made Mother's Day a national holiday, it was not something new.  In England during the 1600's, a day was called ‘Mothering Sunday.’  Even servants would go home to see their families, bringing cakes and sweets to their moms. This custom was called "going a-mothering". Each mother would receive a simnel-cake (Latin for "fine flour") and mothers would give a blessing to their children.    In France children Mother's Day is referred to as Fete des Meres. It provides children and adults to honour their mothers and give her gifts and treats. It is celebrated on the last Sunday in May, and treated more like a family birthday. Everyone in the family gathers for a special meal.  Notice the truth – “family birthday”!  It reminds me of Biblical name meaning for Eve – ‘mother of all living’ (Genesis 3:20).  In many European countries, people on Mother's Day honor their mothers as well as the church. They respect the "Mother Church"- the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm. Thus, the church festival got blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration.  Someone said “God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers,” as if comparing the work of the omnipresent Holy Spirit of God with motherly love.

A recent survey was done “what do mothers want?” to discover that the most popular gift – roses – are 5^th spot!  The top wishes were: do household work, fix whatever you promised and needs to be fixed J; ‚ give a gift card, and let her go shopping JJ; ƒcook a meal, or take her for lunch to a nice treat; „ spend time together, let her tell stories from the past, talk!!!

This short poem (anonymous) spells the most significant word after God:

M... is for the million things she gave me,

O... means only that she's growing old,

T... is for the tears she shed to save me,

H... is for her heart of purest gold;

E... is for her eyes, with love-light shining, 

R... means right, and right she'll always be