Happy Mother's Day!

I recently wrote this short essay to win my mom and I a photo shoot.  While we didn't win the grand prize, here it is.

Happy Mother's Day

When I returned home from college one summer, my mom presented me with a big binder.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“I printed off every email we wrote while you were gone,” she said.

“Aww. That’s sweet, Mom, “ I said with a smile, but I had no idea how sweet that gesture really was.

My mom doesn’t express herself through words  She expresses herself through writing.  Throughout junior and senior high while I was dealing with a bleeding heart because of betrayed friendships or bullying, I’d often find a handwritten note on my bed.  God used each of my mother’s carefully written notes to build me up and strengthen my young heart.  She taught me to how to have a positive perspective on hardship by drilling Romans 8:28 in my head at every opportunity.  “We know that ALL THINGS work together for good…” 

Now that I am a mom, and a very new one at that, I see the depth of what my Mom was trying to tell me with that binder full of emails.  How great and deep is her love for me.  It’s more than just saving an email. While my devastated heart dealt with my first serious breakup during those first rocky months away at college, it brought my mom joy that I opened up my heart up to her.  She treasured me, her flesh and blood.  She valued that I trusted her.  The fact that I dated this guy against her wishes, and we argued about it, and that I made a non-emotional woman CRY didn’t matter.  She loved me UNCONDITIONALLY.  That’s what that binder means to me now.

How great is a mother’s love.  And through my own mom, I see a glimpse of God the Father’s great and mighty, UNCONDITIONAL love for me.