I enjoyed reading all of your Facebook posts about your mothers. So many of your posts touched my heart in the same memorable way my mother’s life and love touched mine.
This year I wanted to wait a week to post this prayer recalling what my Brother-in-Christ, Ivan Butterfield, said to me many years ago. His words survived his death from cancer several years ago. “Jack, if you want to do something special for one you love, do it on an ordinary day. People expect you to do something for them on their birthdays, anniversaries, and on Mother’s and Father’s Days. But, doing special things for others on ordinary days magnifies how much you truly care for them.”
Mom has been gone for 12 years. Yet, I think of her every day and especially on Mother’s Day. Mom is gone but not really gone. The lessons I learned from her rise from the ashes of her body of work for me as my mother.
From her, I learned there is no greater or more important thing a woman can do on Earth than bring a child into the world. From God’s cosmic womb and out of her own miraculous womb of love, a child of God was born.
Mom viewed me as a gift to her and Dad from God. I flourished under Mom’s nurturing. Then, polio struck when I was only six. Thereafter, when I felt different, she always treated me the same. Special.
When I felt ugly, disabled, and unlovable, Mom loved me as I was. As I was not anymore.
Mom never gave up on me. So, I never gave up on myself or my dreams.
Mom reminded me that if I was unconditionally accepted by God, why could I not accept the way I was after paralysis. In high school, Mom confidently said that God would send me a woman who could look beyond my deformities and disabilities and love me too. Like her. Like God. Like a future bride. The one named Dorothy God sent my way my Junior year in College.
Mom’s love could not undo the damage polio did to my body. But, like a good mother, she did all she could to give me the best chance for the best outcome with education, therapy, surgery, rehabilitation, and consistent love and care.
Every day, I apply this lesson from Mom in my calling as a Collaborative Divorce Attorney. I cannot undo the things that break up marriages. But, along with a team of other professionals, I can give divorcing couples the best chance for the best outcome in dissolving their marriage.
I can help divorcing parents show their kids how to say goodbye with civility, dignity, and love. A legacy. A message in a bottle. An example for them to follow if their marriages are irretrievably broken.
As a family law attorney over four decades, I have witnessed mothers who have sacrificed their biological children and given them up for adoption. Step-mothers adopting step-children who are treated and loved as biological children would be. Mothers who spend their entire lives caring for severely disabled children. Foster moms who temporarily care for kids and tearfully let them go to their new families. I have seen mothers courageously leave violent marriages so that their kids are raised in peaceable and safe homes. I have witnessed surrogate mothers carry children for nine months and then let them go so that couples will be childless no more. Surrogate mothers who don’t do this just for money but to bless childless couples with blessed children.
God has spoken to us in scripture about the blessings and qualities of mothers.
Proverbs 31:25:
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:26:
She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
Proverbs 31:31:
Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Psalm 139:13-14:
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
1 Peter 3:4:
You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.
Let us pray.
Dear God, in prayer we thank You for our mothers. In them, we saw Your Face for the very first time.
God, please help us to remember, honor, and praise our mothers on ordinary days for being so special to us every day in our lives.
God, help us to apply the lessons we learned from our mothers in how we treat others and our own kids and grandkids. In doing so our mother’s love lives on in us and You, our God, dwell in the hearts of generations and generations of children everywhere. 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.