This I Believe……
Hello, I am a mother.
I was young when I became a mother. My first child was born 2 months after I turned 18. I had 5 children by the age of 25. Now, at 47, I have given birth to 7 children. I have one adopted child, one daughter-in-law, 3 son-in-laws, 4 grandchildren and 3 step grandchildren. We are a close family and I find great joy in being the matriarch.
This I believe………………..
There comes a time in everyone’s life when they need a mother. This will probably not be their biological mother, or someone they call mother, but someone who steps in at a time of crisis to give unconditional love, and caring.
At first I thought that this mothering was something all Christian women could do. I was wrong, it is a gift.
I can become anyone’s mother. I can step in and love anyone. There are others like me.
We can be in the emergency room to hold your hand, hear your stories, and make the long, uncertain wait easier. Or be there at the time of the accident to cradle your head, wipe the blood off your face and tell you that you are going to be ok.
We can volunteer to mother that very sick child coming from another country for life saving medical care. From the moment that child is in our arms, she is ours. The doctor visits, the pre-surgery appointments, all the tears and sleepless nights. We will sit in the surgery waiting room and cry and pray. We will weep with joy as our child becomes well and happy and returns to their “real” mothers, or we will be inconsolable with grief when our child does not live through surgery.
We can see you in the grocery store as you are trying to keep back tears. We will hug you and listen as you tell us the news that your brother, mother, father, has cancer and you don’t know what to do.
We can step in and stop that man from hitting you, again. Not with strength, but with the might of our love.
We can put our arms around you and help you back home when you are very old and have lost your way.
We can come to someone who speaks another language and love them through the birth of their child in a strange country with strange ways.
You see, it doesn’t matter how old you are, how rich or poor or famous you are, sometimes you just need a mother to walk through that specific time with you.
This being everyone’s mother can be a difficult calling. It is not always pleasant or convenient to take on another’s pain. To pour yourself in to someone you will never see again.
But this I believe……….when someone around me needs mothering, I will be there, again, to pour myself into them for that special, horrible, painful, joyous time.