Today we celebrate mothers.  We all had or have mothers.  I grew up with a mother who was strict and expected the best from me.  Sometimes I think she had eyes everywhere because she always knew what I was up to.  I was the kind of child that needed that because I could easily have gotten into trouble without her watching out for me.

My mother was a farmer’s wife.  She served big, farmer’s meals fresh from the garden and our own chickens and beef and pork. She was a good helper for my dad.  She washed the eggs(hundreds of them) and took some to sell at the grocery store.  She took care of all the dogs and cats we kids came up with.  She washed clothes on a wringer washer and hung them out to dry summer or winter.  She kept a clean house(cleaner than mine.)  She had a beautiful flower garden, some of the flowers in my garden being from her garden.  She kept six children clean and neat and took us to Sunday school and church years before my daddy was saved and became active in church.   She taught Sunday school for many years and made the children felt stockings every year and filled them with candy and the gingerbread men she would bake and decorate.  Every morning of her life she got up hours before the rest of the family and read her Bible and then a library book and took her bath, because once we kids awoke, she had no time for herself.  She never complained but did what she had to do.

My mother was a great cook and baker. Every Saturday was baking day and she would bake cakes and pies enough to last the rest of the week.  She cut up the chickens Daddy would kill and pluck and cut them up on Saturday and on Sunday morning she would fry them before church so that after church we would have a big chicken dinner with all the trimmings.

My mother taught me the love of reading.  She took us kids to the library every two weeks and we would load up on books and bring them home and devour them before we went back again to get some more.  Mother always had a book she was reading.  She read her Bible every single day.  She and Daddy gave me my first Bible.  I loved reading my little Bible and I memorized many verses as I was growing up.  The one hundredth Psalm is my favorite because I have always loved “making a joyful noise.”

My mother took me to the revival where I was saved as a twelve year old.  I will always be grateful to her that she thought it was important enough for we children to be in church every Sunday.   I love going to church now and being with those who love God and worship Him.   It’s my mother’s greatest legacy to me.

My mother was a faithful wife who loved my daddy with all her heart. When he passed away, something went out of her.  She had to have surgery on her back just about a week after daddy’s funeral and went into a nursing home where she died a few years later.  She missed my daddy every day for the rest of her life.  They are together in heaven now and happy as can be, I am assured.

I never thanked my mother enough for what she did for me.  I hope she knows how much I appreciated her.  I look forward to that day when I can throw my arms around her and say, “Thank you, Mom, I love you.”  If your mother is living today, thank her for all she has done for you.  You only get one mother and she would love to hear that you love her.  That’s all we mothers really want.  God bless all mothers today.  Happy Mother’s Day.  Bye.