Mother's Day - First Lutheran Church, White Bear Lake, MN
I wrote this script for a Mother's Day special video for First Lutheran Church, White Bear Lake, MN. Story of Us Films shot the video which can be viewed here.Happy Mother’s Day! That greeting sounds so generic. I tried looking for a card for you, I really did. But all of the Hallmark ones sounded mushy and gushy and that’s just not me…or you. And the cards didn’t really come close to saying how I really felt, so I’ll try writing my own.
If I had to sum up all the things I am feeling today, I think I would choose the words “thankful” and “grateful.” Thankful for you and grateful to you. Looking back, I realize I didn’t make your job any easier. You endured traffic tickets, fender benders, dating struggles, referrals, broken bones, missed curfews, hormonal outbursts and poor choices. I’m sure there were days you wanted to give up; yet you never quit. I know there were days I pushed your patience and dangled on your last nerve, but you never let go. You endured all things, believed all things good about me.
How did you do it? How could you simultaneously cook amazing meals, bake to satisfy our sweet tooth, manage the household budget, referee the many squabbles, provide for the family financially, nurse our owies, chauffeur us to countless events,cheer us on at those events, counsel us through our many problems, mend our socks and our hearts, help us with our homework and whip us into shape when we got out of line? Yet you still found the time to play with us, read to us, watch movies with us and laugh with us. You still had time for worship and reading your Bible. You still had time to snuggle with dad. Did you ever sleep?
What was that superhuman power you possessed that knifed through our souls to know whether we were lying or telling the truth? Did you really have eyes in the back of your head? And that prayer you prayed over me that if I did something wrong, I would get caught…was that a blessing or a curse? You knew the natural consequences to our bad choices, yet you allowed them to play out without intervening knowing we would learn more going through them than protecting us from them.
I know now that those traits, those skills, that wisdom isn’t something prepackaged and picked up on the way out of the hospital and buckled into your being as I was being buckled into my car seat. Those traits, skills and wisdom evolved from God, full of grace and mercy. What you may never have explicitly stated about how much God loved us, you implicitly stated it through your own grace, mercy and forgiveness to your kids. I am forever grateful for the fruit of the Spirit in you passed down to me.
So, thanks mom…not only for what you did, but for who you are and what you are to me. My only wish right now is that you were here with me today so I could honor you in person. I missed that opportunity while you were still here with us on earth. But somehow I know you aren’t bitter about it…that you’re smiling on me now because I’m finally figuring out what it was like to be you and on the other side of me. I can still hear you say, “just you wait” or “your turn will come” as you pointed your finger at me while I mocked your worry and concern for my well-being. My turn has come,mom. You would love my kids and only you would be able to see the traces of me in them. I can only hope they can see the traces of you in me. I love you still. I always will.
