Mother's Day Wish...

Picture: Breakfast in Bed by Mary Cassatt

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may teach and encourage the young women to love their husands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored. ~Titus 2:3-5

My Mother's Day Wish is that all women would take this scripture to heart. Let us resolve to cultivate anew our homemaking skills and share them with our daughters and daughters-in-law and granddaughters so when they are ready to settle into homemaking and family-building, they may call up mental pictures of a mother who saw the importance of raising her children, of blessing her husband, of helping a neighbor during a difficult trial. And let these young women be secure in knowing that help is but a phone call away. If we don't help them, who will? Sure, there are lots of how-to books on having a baby, cooking, budgeting, making your own household cleaners, and home schooling, but there is nothing that can compare with an experienced, older woman who has "been there" who can wrap a warm arm around a frustrated young woman, who will lend a listening ear to her over a cuppa tea, who will show her how to mend blue jeans or remove grease stains from her husbands work clothes, who will tend to the housekeeping when the baby arrives, or who will be there for her when she desperately needs a nap. (Don't you remember those days?) We are busy with so many demanding things these days, even good things that chew away our time and energy, that I wonder if we've overlooked the simplicity and the rewards of being "sensible, pure workers at home." What does it mean to you?

My second Mother's Day Wish is that we mothers would spend time really listening to our husbands and our children. I find myself so easily distracted by my own thoughts and concerns-of-the-day or I may be so focused on my chores and projects, that I forget that I can put all these things aside -- just for a moment or two -- look my child straight in the eye, and listen. We all need to know in our hearts that someone really does care.

Happy Mother's Day!

You might enjoy Calling All Older Women, a special letter from Laine's Letters.