Father, May I? Mother, May I? May 9

Father, May I Honor?
May 9, 2021

Mother, May I?

Proverbs 31:13-21, ‘She searches out continually to possess that which is pure and righteous. She delights in the work of her hands. She gives out revelation-truth to feed others. She is like a trading ship bringing divine supplies from the merchant. Even in the night season she arises and sets food on the table for hungry ones in her house and for others. She sets her heart upon a field and takes it as her own. She labors there to plant the living vines. She wraps herself in strength, might, and power in all her works. She tastes and experiences a better substance, and her shining light will not be extinguished, no matter how dark the night. She stretches out her hands to help the needy and she lays hold of the wheels of government. She is known by her extravagant generosity to the poor, for she always reaches out her hands to those in need. She is not afraid of tribulation, for all her household is clothed in dual garments of righteousness and grace.’ (TPT)

She was the daughter of a carpenter, raised with a tape measure and a hammer. Her own mother was the victim of a thief named TB and passed away when she was a girl at a critical age. You know, when girls most need mothers. Well, I guess that’s not true; there is never a better time to lose your mom, no matter what age; all girls need their mothers. Always. Whether you are a baby girl toddling around on ‘heel hops’ with a plastic baby burping on your shoulder and a phone attached to your shoulder. Or when the first cramps hit and your body changes and embarrassment is a cloak you wear to hide behind. Or when you’re applying hair rollers and makeup for your first date. Or purchasing a veil to hide the tears that will dribble down your cheek when you whisper, ‘I do’, wishing Mom was there to witness it all. There’s never a good time to lose your mom. But she lost hers when the little girl was put to rest and the young woman stepped out of shadows. She was a lonely child.
She was quiet and held her own and was a loyal friend. She once broke her toe kicking a boy and had to stand in front of her class for making moose-sounds with her Think-and-Do Book. She hid her feelings inside and relished her privacy. She spent weekends visiting her mother until she passed at a sanatorium long before she should have died. She had a favored person whom she had grown up with and he became her everything.
She traveled across the United States by train to meet up with the person she could no longer live without. She married him even though it wasn’t advisable, and she worked hard to help put him through school. She never attained her own degree, but she was equally responsible for his. She wasn’t very certain what to do with the three children that happened; after all, she hadn’t grown up for long with the wealth of information not that you read about a mom but what you learned from watching your own mom. She was fragile and private, and spent many of the early years alone in her head, trying to be everything expected and needed of her. When her daddy died, she accepted the news stoically as one accustomed to loss. She learned to drive at the ripe old age of forty-ish and became everyone’s favorite Avon lady. She never found her voice fully until she began singing praises to Jesus when she met Him finally, halfway through a well-lived life.
Suddenly everything made sense. All the emptiness and searching, the loneliness of an only child with no living parent, all the possibilities and potential that had been buried in fertile soil of a servant’s heart, at last had a purpose. She grew in wisdom which increased her stature, this soft-spoken, tiny giant of a God-fearing woman, who wrestled the enemy on behalf of many incarcerated men throughout Colorado Department of Correction. When her name is mentioned, smiles break across faces and warm memories are reflected; she is, this once private, hidden lady, loved and cherished, known by many…many.
She has stood crooked but boldly beside her husband of almost sixty years and he has adored her well. She makes up the other half of him, and he does likewise, so they can be whole a legacy later. She is simple and cautious, caring and committed, and she loves her Jesus more than life itself. She has a grace about her that enables her like a cane, supports all the paths He leads her along, points her in His ways.
She has made her children proud, and in fact, they rise up and call her blessed. It isn’t necessarily what the world calls successful, but she is the most favorable person I know. She’s my mom. Father, may I someday be just like her?

I want to know the Father’s opinion about everything!
Won’t you JOURNEY with me this month as we ask our Father, ‘MAY I?’’