a good time to arise and call your mother blessed

Good morning and happy Mother's Day to all of the beautiful mothers out there!!! It is the day that Mother's all over the world are heralded, that all Mother's are lifted up and praised. I think we should lift and praise our Mother's daily for all that they do, for all that they sacrifice and for the strength and unconditional love they give! Today and everyday I say...I LOVE YOU MOM AND JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE BEST! I love being a mom and although I have not been the example of the best mom in the world I sure hope that my daughter knows how much I love her and what she has done to my heart since the first time I laid eyes on her, as she has grown it has just gotten stronger and stronger and now that she soon will lay eyes upon her son for the first time I cannot explain to you the joy I feel for her! It is life changing and so worth it! 

In my morning chat I asked God to give a special blessing to each and every mother who so selflessly give, and give, and give. I also would like to ask God's blessing upon a very special friend who is trying so hard to become a mother, may you be blessed my sweet friend with fertility and may this be the year that your dreams come true. I thanked God for my beautiful day yesterday and for delivering a most beautiful sunset as I began a new journey in my life, I became Mrs. Wayde Phillips and could not be more happy! I ask God to continue to bless us with laughter and joy. I thanked God for the blessing once again, of bringing Wayde into my life and asked him for many years of the love we feel for each other! I thanked God for the friendships I have and for all of the ones who stepped forward to make our special day possible. God bless those who took time from their lives to offer us best wishes and encouragement! I am blessed beyond anything I could ever have imagined with special people in my life. Father provide for all this day, peace in our hearts, calm in our minds, comfort in our bodies and an abundance of love and laughter. In the name of Jesus Christ I ask for mercy, favor and grace. Amen.

What is your definition of a 'good mother'?

By VICKI HUFFMAN

For a number of years, a Russian peasant woman held the record for having the most children. She bore 69—including numerous multiple births. She was most certainly a mother. (And undoubtedly a tired one.) But, I can't help wondering, was she a good mother?

What is a good mother, anyway?

A good mother doesn't nag — much. Only the essential amount and only about essential matters. Like where to squeeze the toothpaste, how to hang up pants without making eight creases, the inadvisability of 20-minute showers, and which noises are easily produced but socially unacceptable.

A good mother has a speech that begins, “When I was your age, kids had it much harder. My mother didn't take me everywhere. I didn't have all these things you kids take for granted....” She belts out this national anthem of motherhood regardless of the indifference of the crowd. She can make herself heard over a blaring CD player by teenagers hanging opossum-like over a bed with a phone plastered to one ear.

A good mother cooks, cleans, and launders without expecting to be appreciated. She knows that only in TV commercials do kids get excited about fragrant T-shirts or seeing their reflection in the china. In real life most kids have lost the directions to the laundry room and would be content to eat off paper plates or pizza boxes eternally.

But a good mother is much more than just a resident reminder service, cook, cleaning lady, and laundress. A good mother is a launching pad with a soft lap: hardheaded about discipline (especially compared with “everyone else's mother”) and soft-hearted about everything else. She motivates her children to help them reach their full potential and praises them whenever she catches them doing something right.

A good mother gives her children more than a balanced diet and a roof over their heads. She teaches them how to feed their souls and gives them a spiritual foundation on which to build. She directs them into the right paths and prays for them when they occasionally wander off onto others.

A good mother cares how her children turn out. She doesn't just wait for them to get out.

Stationary companies have tried to glorify motherhood by producing syrupy slogans on plaques. One of the worst is: “God couldn't be everywhere, so He created mothers.” That phrase may sell a lot of trivets, but it just isn't so. God is everywhere, and mothers can't be. I know because I've tried.

Maybe God created mothers because He needed someone to keep every generation reminded of His presence. Good mothers have been doing that for thousands of years, ever since Eve held her first wriggling infant in her arms.

Motherhood doesn't need to be sentimentally glorified with ridiculous statements, but it does need to be respected. It is a high calling, a God-given challenge.

The writer of Proverbs 31 described the woman who, like his mother, was a good mother: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:25-28a, New International Version).

As important as mothers are to us, it is amazing how often we take them for granted. Mother's Day is a good time to arise and call your mother blessed, but any day will do as well — as long as you do it before it is too late.

Legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant used to remind his players: “Be sure to call your Mom.” Then he would add wistfully, “I wish I could call mine.”