Mother's Day

This weekend we celebrated Mother's Day. We gather as an extended family for many holidays, and Mother's Day is sometimes included. This was not the case this year, with my brother in Wichita, my immediate family here in Manhattan, and my sister is Topeka.

I was unsure of the origin of Mother's Day, so I went to the Internet and found the following. Most of you probably heard much of this in church yesterday, and that's OK. I found this on the Internet and quote:

"In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers."

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday." (end of quote)

A national holiday. I bought my mother a card and delivered it to her on Friday, because I procrastinated. (This national holiday sneaks up on me, sometimes.) I invited her to accompany me to the mall to help me shop for an anniversary present for my wife, as that also took place this weekend. (Mom is my ladies' fashion adviser.) We spent a couple of hours at the mall, much of at the food court just talking. Then we went to the store and selected an outfit for Susie. She loved it, of course. Mom knows Susie's taste in clothing at least as well, and often times better than I. When Mom says Susie will like something, she is right.

Mom has graduated from Mom to Grandma, and that's OK. She is grandma to some and Grammie to others. Never the less, she loves her children, and those who her children love. And first and foremost, she is a wife to our Dad. That has always been her primary role and remains so today. She is a role model to our children when it comes to being a biblical wife. Her children rise up and call her "Blessed." Mom...you are blessed, and you have blessed us. Thanks

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Thanks for loving me, and those I love.