Tuesday, October 4, 2011

My Mom Rocks.

There is something about my mother that has always inspired me and taken root in my very core since I was a young girl: The intensity and sincerity with which she loves her children. You may think.. "every mother loves their children.." and yes, this is true.. I am not putting my mother on a pedestal or saying she is the only mother who loves her children. However, this weekend it was just unreal to me the lengths to which my mother went to help me. 

As you all know, my trip to Haiti is quickly approaching and I am in a crazy mad dash to get prayer and financial support before January comes around. With this fundraising, it seems like I am always just a step or two behind.. missing a personal deadline, forgetting to stamp something or missing out on an opportunity.. the list goes on. And honestly, it can become quite stressful. Like every good mom, she of course calls me frequently, asking the normal questions and checking up on Eric and I. So on our call last week we decided she would come up and help me with the Rummage Sale I have coming up.
Little did I know just what that would require of her. After she came and went this weekend, I was reflecting on how helpful the amount of time she spent with me on Saturday helped me. She drove from Bryant to Cave City early Saturday morning (over 2 hours), picking up odds and ends that I had asked for. After some chit-chat, we went and spent around 2 hours moving boxes and such at our storage buildings (even-though she was having an allergy attack). Now, understand that this isn't an easy task even if you are feeling well... you are often lifting 30 lb boxes with your body contorted in all sorts of shapes. And even with my interjecting to "..Let me lift that!" She would always have some reason as to not let me: "you'll get dirty" "I'm already back here." "it's not that heavy.." When in reality, she was just looking out for me.. knowing that an injury I had in 10th grade sometimes causes me pain in my back. (something I can guarantee not many people give a second thought to).
After this, we went back home and I spent the next hour emptying my emotinal dump-truck on her.
It was then that she began taking on the never-ending task of brainstorming for fundraising ideas. After honestly over an hour of racking our brains, making lists and phone-calls.. she took a minute to fill me in on her week.
She had worked almost double that of a full-time job in the last week, had car trouble, been helping organize a baby shower for my sister-in-law, helping organize a wedding for my soon to be sister-in-law, and was not feeling well.. all the while working non-stop on helping me fund-raise for Haiti. (not to mention the countless other tasks that I am not even aware of). Talk about a reality check! I soon began realizing that this was no extra-ordinary week for her.. this is her normal. She is continually investing this much of herself into my life (and my brothers), putting herself on the back-burner. She is a beautiful example of a what I want to be as a mother.
Not only did the Lord use her this weekend to help me emotionally and physically, He used her to show me some things spiritually as well. After spending some time in prayer thanking the Lord for my mother and her heart of compassion, asking forgiveness for not reciprocating the time she invests in me, asking for the Lord to give me her intensity of love for my children one day and asking for blessings upon her life for the example she is to me...  I glimpsed just a fraction of how much Christ loves us. I mean, I know that He loves me.. but I think a lot of the time I look over the small things He does in my life.. and how much He sacrificed and the lengths He went to take care of me and to show how much He loves me... just like how I looked over how much my mother sacrificed to take care of me this weekend. The way He always "picks up the phone" when I need Him most, how He quietly listens to me everyday as I unload on Him my "problems," not thanking Him enough for all He does for me and how He teaches me the most in ways I'm not expecting.

So even though this post isn't directly related to Haiti.. I just wanted to share this with all of you.

Thank you Lord for loving me so much that you sent your Son to die in my place, for everything You do for me and for my mother and the example of sacrifice she is to me.

Thank you mom, for everything you are. I love you.


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