A Mother's Love
This devotional was written by Kelly McFadden
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.—
John 15:12-13
My mom and I didn’t get along when I was in high school. I could give you my version or her version of why we didn’t see eye to eye, but both stories arrive at the same place. Put us in a room together and the result was volatile. At that point in my life, I knew our problems were her fault. She didn’t listen, she didn’t understand, she didn’t…you get my point. I left for college vowing never to be like everyone else who went off to college and suddenly became best friends with their parents.
Four months later, I apologized. My mom picked me up from the airport for Christmas break, and as I sat with her, I let her know how very sorry I was for disrespecting her for almost four straight years. As I consider my own future as a mother, I imagine my own child will go through the same phases I went through. As a young child, my mom could do no wrong. She was my hero. But as I grew, I somehow began to think I knew more than she did. Soon I stopped relying on her. By high school, I had decided she didn’t know anything and I moved on. But only four months of being away from her, I started to realize what an amazing woman my mother was and is. Now, 10 years after I vowed never to consider my mom a friend, I can’t imagine my life without her presence. I call her for advice or just to say hi. I look to her as a role model, a hero.
Being a mom is a thankless job. There’s no report card to hang proudly on the refrigerator, no ceremony to celebrate a good season, no award for being the “Most Valuable Player”, few pats on the back, and it’s not often that someone tells you how good you are doing. It took me almost a quarter of a century to finally see that she loved me like Jesus commanded. She did not die for me, but she has made sacrifice after sacrifice for my sister and I for the past 30 years. In essence, she gave up everything in her life to be there for us and love us through the good and through the bad. She still does.
I hope one day I can be a mom just like her. Is she perfect? No, and I won’t be either. But I know I will do a good job if I can match the same sacrificial and pure love she had for me. If I can love my children, just like Jesus…
Our mothers are a blessing.
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