HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

...A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

Today, June 25th, would be my mother's 93 birthday. But she went with her Lord to His Father's house four years ago March. Losing parents has been on my mind alot lately. A dear friend lost her dad a few weeks back, and that same week another close friend lost her mom. My heart goes out to them.

 I miss my mom greatly. We were close when I was growing up, maybe at times too close. We went through periods when we hurt each other, as mom and daughters sometimes do, but over all we were close. And then God, in His graciousness and love, healed so many of the wounds between us the last few years of her life, and we ended our relationship in a very good place. Praise be to God for that.

One of the things that preparing to go abroad has done for me is to have reminded me of  a book I bought for my daughter several years ago.  It is called To My Daughter With Love, A Mother's Memory Book by Donna Green. It's part scrap book and part journal. It is in three sections, the first where I can place pics and write memories of my mom and her life, then a section on my life, and then a section on my daughter's life. Each section traces our beginning and early life,school, becoming a woman, love and marriage, wisdom, and more. It has been so wonderful to look at an over view of all three of our lives. It has especially been wonderful to look at, and pass on to my daughter, what I remember my mom telling me, or what I know about, her hopes and dreams, her fears, her favorite things, her wisdom, her finest qualities, and so many other things this book prompts. It's given me a much fuller view of my mom. I really love that. 

And one of the things it has really showed me, though in some ways I already knew, is how much my mom's faith influenced mine. I always knew she was a woman of faith, and a number of people from her church, and he rsouth TX town, had said how much her faith affected theirs. I have touching stories, like the day I was with her when she was being prepped for surgery, where she was to lose about a forth of the bone structure of her face due to cancer, and she had printed out and brought with her beautiful copies of St. Patrick's Breast Plate Prayer which she was handing out to other patients and nurses as they were prepping her.  And how she said that she wasn't afraid of the surgery or what might happen because she knew that God was with her.She was so incredibly calm; so fully at peace.

 But as I looked over our lives, I saw how many small and large ways she shared or lived her faith in ways that impacted mine. Thank you, Lord, for my mother's life and faith. Thank you for sharing her with those of us who loved her.

Happy birthday, Momma. I love you. Here's to the day we once again stand side by side in worship and praise of the Lord of our lives..............