A Letter To My Mom

Dear Mom,

It was not until I became a mother of my own did I realize the deep love a mother has for her children. It was not until I became a mother did I really come to appreciate the sacrifice and love you had for me over the years.

Thank you

Thank you for loving God so deeply that my whole life was saturated with God, the Bible, Church, His love shining through you.. the reflection of who God is....

You taught me that Jesus loved me despite my sin. I will always have burned in my mind that year when I was 5 in your bedroom you shared with me the love of Christ. How my sins could be forgiven because of God's Son had already taken the punishment that I deserved on the cross. You lovingly encouraged me in little girl terms to love God because he loved us.

Thank you

Thank you for exhibiting how to be a mother, by being the for-most mother. Weeks after my birth you hemorrhaged, was put in the hospital, and grieved...not for your own illness, but because you did not have the bonding time with your new little girl. I was at home as a newborn with a babysitter, you pumped continuously in the hospital to keep me alive all the while grieving in your heart that I wasn’t by your side. Then when you begged to go home so you could be with me, you were bed bound, with me by your side in the cradle. Although you see this as a negative...I see the deep love of a mother.

Thank you

Thank you for being so smart, so beautiful, so wise and so talented. It's nice to know that I have the potential somewhere in my genetics to possibly one day be as special as you.

Thank you for trusting God when life did not make sense. The day you followed dad to Bible college with very little pay and 9 months pregnant with number 4. The Faith you exhibited when your dad died and then not to much later, when you sister died. You never got angry at God, instead, you turned closer to Him knowing He was your only strength and Comfort. The day you gave up the beautiful dream house in the country for a tent and a camper with 5 children under 2 because you knew that God's way is always right. The year you lived in the rented house in Illinois, trusting God for your every need.

Thank you

Thank you for the faithfulness you have exhibited these last 30 years in Muncie as a wife of a man in full-time christian service. Many times giving your husband's time to other people over and over again...and never begrudging him serving the Lord...even if it meant time away for you.

Thank you

Thank you for loving my dad. When he was hit by a car in DC, when he fell back onto his head and temporarily blacked out, when he had prostate cancer, when he was discouraged, when he was upset, when he was happy, when he was sick. With grace and Godliness you exhibited how a women should love, respect, support, encourage, and submit to her husband.

Thank you

Thank you for sacrificially loving your own mother. When your daddy died you were there and slept with her for a week...helping her grieve. Again, when your sister died, you were there helping make the hardest decision of your life, taking her off life support. For the last 3 years of your mother's life you gave up your entire 3 years to sacrificially care, feed, diaper, medicate, potty, love your mother...until the day she graduated into heaven. I want to be like you....I want to be like God.

Thank you

Thank you for encouraging each of your children to serve God. For giving up your second daughter Sarah to the service of the Lord willingly, knowing you will not see her for 4 years at a time...missing out on physically holding, loving, and being with your grandchildren. For encouraging and cheering on your sons to leave the home and go anywhere and everywhere God wants them to serve. Scott, in Michigan as a Christian School Administrator and Assistant Pastor; Paul, church planting in Colorado as the music Pastor; Ben, serving as the Family Pastor in South Carolina and founder and director of Truth Trackers. We all know that because of your prayers...we are serving the same Lord your loved all those years.

Thank you for being my mom, my mentor, my friend, my example.

Mom, the words "I love you" are not adequate enough to express how grateful I am to be your daughter, how much you are appreciated or how much you will always mean to me,
so I will simply say:

Thank you mom for being a reflection of God,

my expert-in-everything,

and my very best friend.

I love you,

Your Daughter