This past Sunday was Mother’s Day – the busiest and most productive holiday of the year — even in a coronavirus environment — for florists, card makers, chocolatiers, and the phone companies!

It is the one holiday where almost everyone thinks about their mothers, and contacts them in one way or another. Those thoughts may be good or bad, but they are thoughts about Mom nonetheless.

My own mother passed into eternity over 13 years ago, but her memory lives on, and I often think about her, wondering what she would say to me “if she could see me now”! Don’t we all do that?

Someone has defined “mother” as “a person who can detect a lie, hear the smallest noises, and see out of the back of her head.” I would also add that she “inevitably, while sitting in the car on the way to church every Sunday, will spit into her handkerchief and use it to clean behind a little boy’s ears!”

Ahhh, ”fond” memories!

There have been two women in my lifetime that I have known pretty well. Both of them are women who are associated with me through the miracle of birth.

One of them was the woman who gave birth to me, and nurtured and fed and clothed me for the first 20 or so years of my life. The other one is the woman who gave birth to our children, and has put up with me for more years than even the first woman has had to!

Both of these ladies, in one context or another, carry the title “Mother.” And they both wear that crown with dignity and respect. Every day of my life I praise God for each of them!

I have come across two poems which characterize both of these women. The first little ditty was written by Samantha Blackwood and goes like this:

Most times my mother makes me laugh.

Sometimes I think she’s insane,

But then again she may take a look at me

And think the very same.

That is so very true of my mother! I know for a fact that to her dying day, although she was very proud of me, she thought I was crazy!

The second “poem” – not sure who to give credit to for composing it — pretty much says it all about mothers. These words are true, whether I’m talking about the woman who gave birth to me, or the woman who gave birth to my children.

“Somebody” said that a child is carried in its mother’s womb for nine months.

“Somebody” does not know that a child is carried in its mother’s heart forever.

“Somebody” said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you’ve had a baby.

“Somebody” doesn’t know that once you’re a mother, normal is history.

“Somebody” said you learn how to be a mother by instinct.

“Somebody” never took a three-year-old shopping.

“Somebody” said being a mother is boring.

“Somebody” never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver’s permit.

“Somebody” said if you’re a ‘good’ mother, your child will ‘turn out good’

“Somebody” thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

“Somebody” said ‘good’ mothers never raise their voices.

“Somebody” never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor’s kitchen window.

“Somebody” said you don’t need an education to be a mother.

“Somebody” never helped a fourth grader with his math.

“Somebody” said you can’t love the fifth child as much as you love the first.

“Somebody” doesn’t have five children.

“Somebody” said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books.

“Somebody” never had a child stuff beans up his nose.

“Somebody” said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery.

“Somebody” never watched her “baby” get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten.

“Somebody” said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back.

“Somebody” never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.

“Somebody” said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married.

“Somebody” doesn’t know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother’s heartstrings.

“Somebody” said a mother’s job is done when her last child leaves home.

“Somebody” never had grandchildren.

“Somebody” said your mother knows you love her, so you don’t need to tell her.

“Somebody” isn’t a mother.

I might also add that “Somebody” doesn’t know the two women in my life who carry that title “Mother!”

I sincerely hope that all mothers had a very warm and happy Mother’s Day this year!

God bless…

Chuck Tabor is a regular columnist for the News Journal and a former pastor in the area. He may be reached at [email protected].