Honoring a Mother’s Legacy: Faith, Family, and the Lessons We Pass On
Happy Mother’s Day
“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
My mom has been gone for thirteen years. I’m grateful to be mothered, mentored, and loved by her. I cherish her for teaching me to rise from a fall and not only go on but to embrace life abundantly. Seeing the same tenacity in her granddaughter, Leah, my niece, is a treasure. Leah has been through so much in her short life, medically and in her other challenges with divorced parents. Yet she has this vibrant approach that, despite trials, she answers quietly, “Yes, I can.”
Today, we celebrate all who’ve mothered or are mothering with their spirit, stories, lessons, and, most importantly, their actions. We learn so much from how our parents conducted their lives—some lessons are good, and as they are human, some we may not want to emulate. It gives us pause to think about how we affect the next generations. Do our actions align with our beliefs? What are we leaving behind as a testament to our lives?
I didn’t have children, but God granted me two young adult stepchildren when I married Roger. Ashley was 18, and Kris was 20. They are now adults living their lives. My heart sings that although I missed having children, I have a family I deeply love and now the family has expanded.
I’m delighted to have David as a son-in-law and two grandchildren who don’t recognize me as a step-grandmother. I’m just Oma, and as I contemplate stories from others who are grandparents, I realize it also has an important role that helps to nurture and provide lessons from both words and actions. During Covid, Ashley, who lives on the other side of the country, was working from home and asked for help to spend time with her daughter, who was getting about one hour of daily online lessons. At first, Roger and I thought about how to keep a three-and-a-half-year-old interested on Zoom. We thought it might last 15 minutes.
But everyone loves stories, and we found ways to connect with her through online storybooks. We silenced the voice reader and read the stories to her ourselves. She loved it. We found one story about a grandmother who made pasta, and a video accompanying it. Our granddaughter was fascinated and afterward asked her mom to make pasta for dinner. Other lessons fostered questions about how houses were made, what a fireman did, and where wood came from. Monday through Friday, we met for up to two hours a day. It was a precious time in the darkness of COVID that brought light to both Roger and me.
I think about the coming years and hope we can share how God has been at the center of our lives, giving us meaning, comfort, direction, and peace.
Today, we pray for wisdom for all mothers and grandmothers, the attributes of Love captured so well in the verses of 1 Corinthians 13.
“Love is patient, love is kind.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.”
How are you sharing your lessons with the next generation?
