Mothers Day

“100 years from now it will not matter what my bank account was,
the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…
but the world may be a better place
because I was important in the life of a child.”

I’ve been sorting through some old family pictures and when I came across this one last night, I immediately thought of this quote. This is a 4-generation picture taken in 1922. The little girl is my grandmother who went to Heaven in 1998. Behind her is her mother, my great-grandmother… and then, of course, my great-great-grandmother… and seated is my great-great-great-grandmother! (It was her 75th birthday.) In the family they are affectionately known as: Grandmother, Mother Shumaker, Mama ‘Berry, and Grandma Bock. I’m too young to have known Mama ‘Berry and Grandma Bock, but I was blessed to know Mother Shumaker (my great-grandmother) who died when I was 16. Based on the kind of women Mother Shumaker and Grandmother were, and with my own beautiful mother continuing the tradition… I have to think that my world is a better place because each one of these women were important in the lives of their children.

Lord, help me be that kind of mother!