Mother's Day 2016

I woke up this morning and was greeted with hugs and wishes of "Happy Mother's Day!"  It is a wonderful thing hearing those special words and each time I hear them, I know just how blessed I am to be a Mom.  It is one of the hardest jobs and one of the most rewarding jobs.

I went for a morning run by the river to start my day and to give Terry and the kids time to get breakfast ready.  I love running by the river, even on days like today when the run seemed a little hard.  On my way home I was listening to The Message on Sirius and one of the announcers came on to wish all the moms a Happy Mother's Day.  As he did, he mentioned that he notices just how hard so many moms are on themselves.  He went on to talk about how many moms feel like they are failing and selling their children short.  He continued on with encouragement for all moms and that he believes moms need to let go of these negative feelings and focus on all the good that they are doing.  I got teary as I listened to his words.  It hit home as there are many times I have felt this exact same way as a mom.  I am sure that you can all relate to feeling that way a time or two.  But I hope that if you feel this way, you are able to let go of those feelings and that you can feel appreciated for the job that you do as MOM.

When I got home, I did a devotion by Mary Sutherland from Girlfriends in God.  She wrote about a time when her family life was so busy with church involvement (her husband was a youth pastor).  She had young children and she had piled them into the van one night after supper to go to church and seeing the looks on their faces, she decided right then and there to turn the vehicle around and head home to spend some quality time with her kids.  This made her kids beyond excited.  That day she learned an important lesson about where her ministry was.  This is something I was just talking to a colleague about the other day.  We were talking about how much we enjoy our jobs but that we need to keep boundaries because our first priority and ministry needs to be with our own family.

Last night at church, Pastor Ian talked about our lives and how busy they have become.  He spoke about how busyness today shows our importance. Most of us are too busy and over scheduled.  Over loaded.  I know this is try because I see it in my life and in the lives of many around me.  With the demands of our life, we input on so many levels but output on way more levels and therefore don't find balance.  That leads to stress.  It leads to hurried lives where we miss what is important.  It leads to relationships that are superficial and where we don't take the time to develop deeper relationships where we should.

Pastor Ian went on to talk about the Mary and Martha from Luke 10.  He described the Martha Syndrome and how people seem to appreciate the Marthas of the world.  This syndrome is characterized by:
-good intentions
-good opportunities that are missed due to our loss of focus
-best of intentions that we don't follow through on
-easily distracted
-don't spend the time we should doing what we should
-poor theology where we get caught up on the way we think life should be rather than how it ought to be
The Mary Solution is about trusting in God's provision for every day in our life.  It is characterized by:
-intentional listening
-clear perspective
-making healthy choices
-live a life for an audience of one and honour God - in this way, all the other pieces will come together in life

Life goes by so quickly.  I hope that you can take the moments to celebrate the every day.  One special moment we experienced as a family today was seeing a mother duck and her ducklings.  What a perfect little gift on Mother's Day.

I pray that each of you were able to spend time with loved ones today.  I pray for the broken hearts and empty arms.  I pray for mothers who have lost their mother.  I pray for mothers who have lost a child and grieve them on this special day.  I pray for the mothers who are distant from their own mothers, whatever the circumstance may be.  I pray for the women who want so desperately to be called Mom and long for the opportunity.  I pray for women who doubt the job they are doing and hope that they will be encouraged and know they are loved and appreciated.  I pray that you will see the ministry among those right in front of you.  Don't overlook the opportunity to spend time with your children.  Don't miss the opportunity to encourage and uplift those loved ones who need it.  And on this Mother's Day, don't forget to tell your mom how much you love and appreciate her.  Happy Mother's Day to you all!  And a special Happy Mother's Day to my own Mom and Mother-in-law on Mother's Day!  I love you both!

Delicious breakfast that my wonderful husband prepared.  Thanks for the waffle recipe Shea, it is our favourite.  Loved the handmade gifts that came from school - makes a mom feel special. 

Notice the turquoise butterfly on the mantle that Jaret also made me.