Today's Devotional

April 22, 2005

Subject:  Saluting Mom

Romans 16:13 - "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine."

No it's not Mother's Day today, but today does mark another milestone for my mom.  Today is her birthday and as she turns 72, it's so interesting to see how great life continues to be.  She often talks about all of the things she's learning.  Yea, still learning while some people in their 20's and 30's have given up that pursuit in life.  My mom spent much of her life as a school teacher and in fact teaching math to all of her children as they passed through the 7th and 8th grade.  That was uncommon for a woman, but that was my mom.  We never knew that women weren't supposed to be good at math as we hear today.  Then there was the clothing.  With six kids, my mom  spent much of her time behind a sewing machine when we were young.  She would make Easter clothes and suits and dresses for all occasions.  While the other kids in the neighborhood wore store-bought clothes, the quality was so high it was never a big deal.  Oh and don't forget that while my mom taught school every day she also had to feed an army of kids and we never missed a meal.  I'm still amazed by that to this day because by today's standards we were poor.  However, because of my mom, we never knew it.  She saw to it that we had life.  She created arts and crafts for us to do in the house and we played games like "stop-light" in the garage on rainy days. 

Today like Paul in saluting the mother of Rufus and his mother, I simply want to salute mine.  I only pray that all the children of the world could grow up as I did and say like I can, "I have the best mother in the world."

Carlen