Mom

Today, for Mother’s Day I wanted to share a little bit about having a mom like mine.

My Mom. Where do I begin? There are a lot of women who bore children in this world and it doesn’t make you a mother. Boring a child is the easy part, raising one or more is the hard part. I remember being a young girl and we lived in an apartment when my parents were divorced and my mom had her bedroom in what would have been the dining room so my brother and I would have our own rooms. We used to ride our bikes and blow bubbles and she would laugh as she watched us.

I’m not aware of all of the sacrifices that she made for us growing up to make sure that we had clothes, food, and a home but I never felt poor or lacking of anything. I know we had food stamps at one point for a temporary time.

Around the age of 12, my parents remarried and started a trucking business. At the beginning, it was a financial struggle. I remember when she told me one day that at one point the budget for groceries was $20 a week. How do you feed a family of four on $20 a week? When I was an adult, she shared that she would go without eating or eat something else because there wasn’t and enough food for all of us. Again, through this, I never felt like I lacked anything. We even got an allowance at one point and unlike my brother who tended to save his money, I spent mine on make up, hair accessories, clothes, nail polish, and probably other unnecessary things.

I wasn’t an easy child. In fact, I was pretty rebellious in my teenage years, even moving out at 17 and causing a harder life for myself. Mom and I would argue a lot or should I say…I would talk back a lot. Looking back, I wish I could take that back because she didn’t deserve that after the life she provided for us. No matter what choices I made in life though, she never made me feel judged or loved any less. In fact, once I moved out our relationship changed and we became close. Today, she’s not only my mom but one of my closest friends.

Another memory I have is that, she rarely ever lost her cool. She always practiced and still practices grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness. She always prayed, and still prays, and never gave up on any of her children, no matter where we chose to go in life. She brought us to church every Sunday morning and every Wednesday night even when we didn’t want to go and would fight her to go. We didn’t have an option in this. We were going and I’m so thankful today that she made us go.

She is always supportive, maybe not always in agreement–but always supportive. If I need someone to pray for me or with me about something, she’s my go to. If I need to vent and talk something out, she’s my go to. I know that I can always count on her guidance being from the heart and if she’s not sure how to proceed with advice, she’ll say, “let’s pray and ask God to show you how he wants you to take the next step” or just a simple, “let’s pray for this situation and for God’s will to be done”.

My mom is my example of what a true woman of God is and what a mother is. She is the one  I look up to and strive to be like. She’s not perfect as no one is and she’ll be the first to admit that. None of us will ever be perfect, we’re human. But, I strive to remain graceful, faithful, forgiving, and strong in God no matter what, just like her.

Mom, thank you for never giving up on me!