Hard Days Night

Being a mother is hard work, but anything worth respect or honor is not easy. Otherwise what would be the admiration in it. Someone walks away from their marriage when it gets ruff, no one says, "Oh, I really admired them, they broke their promise and took the easy way out." The world may say, do what makes you happy. But the truth of it is even unbelievers admire character, and living out character is not easy. That is why Mother's Day is made so important because mothers do sacrifice and work so hard. So take joy in your toil mothers. Thank God we have a wonderful purpose to our lives, that we do hard work that will be evident for generations. Those little ones notice more than we think, and the Lord sees all.

Very thankful this Mother's day for all those piles of laundry of little clothes, for the little toes which stick under the bathroom door, for the moments that stretch me and make me grow in my faith. Truly, I feel grateful in my heart for the gift of life the Lord has given to me and the lives God has bestowed in my care. The true trials and losses we face may make life lose it brightness and shine, but at other times it makes the little, passover things shine out to us. Laundry and sleepless nights are not life and death issues. Living through my husband's stroke recovery may have been very hard, but though it the Lord gave me a beautiful gift of seeing my world in a different way.

I have not really realized until today, that I no longer grumble or resent my load of work in the way I once did - as a martyr. Overwhelmed, in need of help, yes, but not as a dramatic sacrifice, but a beautiful privilege. I enjoy the recognition on Mother's Day, but I do not feel anymore that I need it. God has given me the reward of joy.

Not only are children a gift, but the hard work is a gift as well. This is not meant to make life look like a Brandy Bunch episode, because life with children is real and reality is often not pretty. It is not taking hard out or denying it with a fake smile and a cloak of gentleness, it saying that the hard work is OK, in fact a joy, because we know it has great value in an eternal perspective. You only need to feel sorry for a mother of many children if she fails to see the joy in her work.