A mothers love

Proverbs 31:28 (NLT)

28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:

Proverbs 31 provides an epilogue: the wife of noble character. For through most of the chapter the father speaks to his son about the type of wife he should seek out. The father reminds the son - Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

[Have you ever wondered when Americans started celebrating Mother's Day? The holiday was born out of one woman's desire to honor her mother's life of sacrifice and grace.

Born in 1864 in Grafton, West Virginia, Anna Jarvis witnessed the aftermath of the Civil War through a child's eyes. Her mother, Anna Maria Reeves-Jarvis, had spent the war organizing women to nurse wounded soldiers from both the North and South, and generally attempting to hold her border-state community together. After the war, Anna Maria started "Mothers' Friendship Days" to reconcile families that had been divided by the conflict.

Throughout her life, Anna Maria modeled the ideals of Victorian motherhood. She gave up her dreams of college in order to tend to an older husband and four children. She bore the loss of seven other children with grace. She taught Sunday school in the local Methodist church for 20 years and stayed active in benevolent work.

Anna Maria's death in 1905 devastated her daughter. Two years later, Anna got the idea to found a holiday remembering her mother, and all mothers, whom she felt could never be thanked enough.

Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908 in Grafton (where Anna grew up) and Philadelphia (where she lived as an adult). Later, in a resolution passed May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress officially established the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. [Elesha Coffman, "Mom, We Salute You," Christian History Newletter (5-10-2002)]]

Mothers are special people. They usually spend the most time with their children in their early years and they are there as needed in later years. Mothers are very protective of their children. Mothers watch over their children and help guide the direction of their life. Sometimes as the child we might think of our mother as too stern, too ridged, too demanding and too much of a perfectionist. However, mothers do the best they know how to do. There is no specific training given to women over the years to become a mother. So they learn from their own childhood and experiences around them. They learned as they went, occasionally making mistakes, but trying not to make the same mistake twice.

Let us honor our mothers for the work she has done in our lives.