Mother’s Day. O What A Day.
I am pretty sure that my memories of Mother’s Day and the days preceding it are different than most other people. I say this because, until I was in my later thirties, my parents or my mother owned a florist. From the age of nine or ten ,I got to see how a wide variety of people remembered their mother. I either wrote out and or read thousands of cards as I put them in the little envelope that accompanied flower arrangements or bouquets. I helped deliver or delivered flowers from husbands to their wives who were the mother of their children, for children to their mothers, stepmothers and or grandmothers, and even flowers to ladies who were surrogate mothers. I have delivered flowers for Mother’s Day to homes, hospitals, assisted living establishments, nursing homes and to cemeteries. I have delivered flowers to mothers whose children saw and talked to their mother every day, some once per week, some once a month, and some once per year.
After I went into the ministry I then learned there are a wide variety emotions by people concerning Mother’s Day. As Mother’s Day approached one year, I asked a lady if she was going back to her hometown to go to church with her mother on Mother’s Day? The lady said, “I don’t go to church on Mother’s Day.” “Why not?” I asked. She replied, “When I was young there was nothing I wanted more than to one day be a mother, but I cannot have children. Mother’s Day is a very painful day for me, and when I am hurting the most, the church is celebrating. So, I just don’t attend on that day; it is a reminder of a pain that never leaves me.” She went on to say, “My mother understands and we do something different.” A few years later I learned of a person who did not celebrate Mother’s Day because they were abused and abandoned by their mother. I have also known of a woman who at a young age made a decision to terminate a pregnancy that she deeply regretted not long after she had it. Now each Mother’s Day she mourns the loss of a daughter she never was able to know. There is also pain for the mothers who have had children pass away. Lastly, there are also those who hurt over the loss of their mother. Over the years I have come to realize Mother’s Day carries a wide range of emotions.
I personally am so grateful for all the godly women who have mothered, guided, and positively influenced me – my mother, grandmothers, mother-in-law, wife, daughters, women who were mothers, and some who were not. I am grateful for all women who have positively influenced so many lives in the world throughout all of time.
I also hurt for all those who hurt on Mother’s Day no matter the reason. Whatever you feel when Mother’s Day comes around, may we all be both grateful for all the great mothers and women of wonderful godly influence on our lives, but may we also have compassion for those who hurt on this day too.
May God continue to bless you all,
Charles
By the way, below is a link to a video concerning the Methodist Church and Mother’s Day.
https://www.umc.org/en/content/methodist-history-the-founding-mothers-of-mothers-day