Happy Mother's Day

Here is a devotional that I got the other day and saved it for this weekend:

“Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise.Ephesians 6:2
The camera zooms in on the celebrating athlete . . . “Hi Mom!” he mouths with a grin and a wave . . . and it’s not even Mother’s Day.
Of all the annual celebrations, perhaps none is more sentimentalized or commercialized than Mother’s Day. Card shops, restaurants, florists, and others do a booming business, and pastors recognize the oldest, youngest, and everything-in-between mothers in the congregation. The telephone company reports its highest usage during this day. Interestingly, Father’s Day also ranks among the highest number of calls made—collect calls, that is!
It would be easy to take a cynical view and shoot down our holiday rituals. After all, we do seem to idealize mothers . . . and what about the feelings of those who aren’t mothers or who can’t be?
But I won’t take that route. Despite the excesses of the day, I believe that Mother’s Day is needed now more than ever.
First of all, consider how important these women are. For nine months they carried us as we grew, bending them out of shape, living off their food, and constantly kicking and moving. And they endured the terrible pain of birth to bring us safely into the world. Then the real work began as they diapered, fed, comforted, disciplined, and taught us. As is usually the case, I never really began to appreciate my mother until Gail and I had our first child. The demands of parenting seem endless.
But it is also important to celebrate Mother’s Day because of the current attitude of society. With misguided feminists continually denigrating motherhood, mothers and housewives can feel like second-class citizens who somehow have been cheated out of a meaningful career. And with abortion-on-demand in vogue, many women are choosing to kill rather than to accept the responsibilities of rearing a child. We need to tell mothers that they are important and to celebrate their presence.
The truth is that there is no higher calling than to be a parent—to bear, teach, and guide children; to make a home, a place of acceptance and love.
Toward the end of her life my mother had Alzheimer’s disease. She knew she had five children, but she didn’t remember giving birth or the details of bringing them up and of bringing them to faith in Christ. But I remembered. And I thank God for this godly woman who, with my dad, made parenting special.
So thanks, Mom—and thank you, Christian mothers everywhere—for choosing life, for guiding lives, for taking your call seriously. Happy Mother’s Day!