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Prayer to My Mother, for Ice Cream and Sweet Things – May 10, 2020

May 10, 2020 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

To hear Jack read this prayer, please click here.

God – In 1958 before a family dinner and sitting around a picnic table under the pine trees on a warm summer day, my sister, Carolyn, took this picture with her Brownie camera.  This photograph was taken in black and white.  No color was needed to make a vibrant memory for me.  Or to recall the sweet taste of the cool and creamy dessert.  Mother’s homemade vanilla ice cream.

I do not know what possessed my sister to take the photograph.  Maybe the Brownie camera was new and she was eager to use it.  But, just maybe my sister was struck by the almost Norman Rockwellian character of the scene of her parents and mine so much in love with and devoted to each other.  The kind of moment a child can never get enough of.  The absence of drama.  Faces at peace with one another.  Simplicity of the task at hand.  Genuine and transparent to both the eye and the heart.  Togetherness.  The joy of the moment made.  The anticipation of consuming the result of each other’s contribution to be shared with their children, with family.  Love frozen in time.  Indelible sweetness.

As a Master Credentialed Collaborative Divorce Attorney, Mediator, father and grandfather, I see every day that this moment in 1958 is a powerful example of what all Your children need to see, to follow, to learn from, to replicate in their marriages when they grow up and have their own kids.

Admittedly, the image in this photograph is blurred.  Yet the image is seen by me with such clarity and vividness on this Mother’s Day I feel I could really reach out and touch Mom on the Earth even though she is with You now in Heaven.  I see the image for what it was and for what it is in black and white.  Love.  Your love for us through her and her love for me and our family.

What happened in cranking the ice cream bucket handle, in taking turns to share the burden, to churn and transform the ingredients from a warm mixture of milk, cream, eggs, and vanilla into an unforgettable delight.  Ice cream to savor in my mouth as long as possible before swallowing and taking another bite.  My bowl of ice cream would too soon disappear.  There at the picnic table on one beautiful day.  Then, gone but not really gone.  As with my mother with You in Heaven.  Like the memory, the blessing which keeps on blessing.  The image giving birth to this prayer.

Watching the churning and the turning of the handle on the ice cream bucket was important for sure.  But, God, what Mother did before she posed for the picture with Dad was important too.  Standing in the kitchen pouring the milk and cream into the bowl.  Adding just the right amount of Adams Vanilla Extract.  Folding in the eggs.  Stirring the long wooden spoon with care.  Pouring the raw mixture into the pot on the oven and warming it just enough but being careful not to burn the potential feast.

Pouring the warm mixture into the container.  Setting the container in the bucket.  Then, adding layer after alternating layer of ice and salt until the bucket was full.  I so much wanted to sample the ice cream when the handle could not be turned anymore.  But, Mom made me wait. She showed me that some things are worth waiting for.  The ice cream must be even colder.  The bucket must topped off with ice and salt and packed.  The ice cream must be cured. Some things in life take time.  Sweetness from labor and love must wait to bloom.  To happen.

God, I thank You for my mother’s love and for her homemade vanilla ice cream.  Her love which made our house a home.

God, that day I learned that the ice cream was worth waiting for.  Mom was right.  That day we shared a fabulous meal with Mom and Dad.  All topped off with Mom’s homemade vanilla ice cream

God, please tell Mom Happy Mother’s Day for me.
Please thank her for her love which gave us all something sweet from You.
Each other.
A mom.
A dad.
A sister.
Four brothers.
Some things are indeed worth waiting for.
And, as I hold this old photograph in my hand,
And, as I recall the taste of homemade vanilla ice cream,
I am older than Mother and Dad were in this photograph.
Yet I am blessed to still be Your child
And a child of a mom like her,
A mom who showed her son
What it takes to live and to love
With beauty and sweetness and care.
For me to taste a little bit of Your Heaven on Earth
And the everlasting love Mom has with You now.

God, may all Your children eat something today, like my mother’s ice cream, to take them back to the past, to their own cherished memories their moms made possible for them.  In this challenging time of social distancing and worry may the taste of memories of a mother’s love bring them comfort too.  May that give them hope that sweet things will soon come pass with prayer and faith in You.  Amen

If you like this prayer, please share. 

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon. 

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers Tagged With: Bending Angel, Jack Emmott, making ice cream, mother's day prayer

Prayer in Thanksgiving for My Mother – May 13, 2018

May 12, 2018 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Lucile Emmott

God – At Your Table today please tell my mother, Lucile, Happy Mother’s Day for me.

From Your cosmic womb You used her as Your vessel to bring me into the world to know beauty, love, the power of prayer and You.

Please let Mother know that I thought she was the most beautiful mom a son could ever have. But, her beauty was not just skin deep. Her beauty radiated from the well of her personhood and abiding faith in You.

Before I had polio as a little boy, Mother taught me The Lord’s Prayer. Every evening at bedtime I knelt beside her and we said together the words of this prayer to You.

At age six, I left our home and was paralyzed from the neck down. Though I could no longer kneel at home next to Mother, I could still pray and say the Lord’s Prayer every night for a year at the hospital.

Lord, on this Mother’s Day, I give thanks to You for a mother like her. For in Mom’s life and care, I knew and received Your unconditional love for me.

Today, Mother is with You. I cannot hold her in my arms as I wish I could.  But, I rejoice in knowing that she is celebrating another Mother’s Day with You and her own mother in the glory of Your everlasting light and love.  Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120-lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.

 

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers Tagged With: Bending Angel, Jack Emmott, Lucille Emmott, mother's day prayer

A Mother’s Day Prayer – May 14, 2017

May 13, 2017 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Mom, October 1948

God – As You now hold my mother in Your arms in Heaven as she held me as her infant son, I give thanks to You for sending her to me. Her love and care were my very first glimpse of You, my Father. When I looked into her eyes, I saw an angel in disguise. Today I celebrate her time with me. In that gift to me from You I received so much more than unconditional and never failing love. As Your disciple Mother opened a door for my heart to see and be transformed by You, Lord, Your Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120 lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.

 

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers Tagged With: Bending Angels, Jack Emmott, mother's day prayer

Mother’s Day Prayer – 2016

May 5, 2016 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Mother’s Day Prayer – Jack H. Emmott 5/8/16

Love is born
From the womb
God gave her.

Granddaughter Elissa with her special friend

Granddaughter Elissa with her special friend

Lying beside her
She sees her blessing
Clothed in innocence
And angelic beauty.

The woman who received God’s gift
Is like no other.
God gave her a special name.
He called her “mother”.

God,
On this Mother’s Day
May every mother
In the Kingdom of Christ
Hold in the manger
Of her heart
Memories of joy
And happy tears,
Of her sleeping child curled up
In the quiet, security and peace
Of a mother’s love.

Amen

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers Tagged With: mother's day prayer

About Jack H. Emmott

Jack H. Emmott

I am a polio survivor. The fact that I suffered paralysis at the age of six is, in some ways, unimportant. Bad things happen to everyone. Viewed differently...

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