Honoring Mothers

Much has been written in the course of time regarding mothers.  Here, at Mother’s Day, 2013, I add my few thoughts to wish all mothers—and all those who honor their own mother and other significant ones who have been in a “motherly” role in their lives a “Happy Mother’s Day.

We see mother mentioned early in Genesis when God created Eve to be a helpmeet for Adam.  He instructed Adam, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife…” (Genesis 2:24, ESV).  Later we read of Adam naming Eve, and of her role as  a mother:  “”The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20).  In the course of time, God gave a commandment concerning the role of children in relationship to parents:  “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Genesis 20:12).  This commandment had a promise for those who obeyed--long life.  I remember my dear grandmother who so honored her parents and other elders that her days on this earth numbered nearly 102 years. The Psalmist joined in praise of mothers, saying, “He (God) gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.  Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 113:9).  The writer of Proverbs added his praise to mothers, saying:  “Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old…Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice!” (Psalm 23:22, 25).  In Mary’s “Magnificat”, her Song of Praise soon after the angel’s announcement to her that she would be the mother of the Lord, in the Spirit she said”  “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name” (Luke 1:49, ESV).

Having a day set aside to honor mothers has a long history.  We can trace its roots back into Greek and Roman times when Greece honored Rhea, wife of Cronus and in Rome Cybela, a “mother” goddess.  “Mothering Sunday” was begun in England in the 1600’s.  In America, Julia Ward Howe, author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” wrote a Mother’s Day Proclamation as early as 1870 in Boston.  Anna Jarvis of Grafton, West Virginia is credited with starting Mother’s Day as we know it, with the first official Mother’s Day event in 1908 to honor her sainted mother, Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis who had started work with mothers to teach them sanitation and better health practices after the Civil War.  Julia Jarvis’s petitions for a special day finally reached the ears of President Woodrow Wilson who signed a resolution May 8, 1914 making the second Sunday in May officially “Mother’s Day.”  Later, Anna Jarvis rued the commercialization of the day, for that had not been her intention.  She wanted to call attention to the important role of mothers and to set aside a day to say thank you to them.

I had an honored and loving mother to whom I am grateful for my early rearing, up through age fourteen.  At that tender teen-aged time in my life, I lost her to a serious illness.  My life was never the same afterward, because I at that age became a sort of surrogate mother to my then eleven-year-old younger brother.  But my having to grow up in a hurry taught me responsibility, appreciation and a sense of developing in maturity and insight that I may not have had otherwise.  I am very grateful that I am privileged to be a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother.  On Mother’s Day let us honor those faithful women who have made a difference in who we are today.