Allow me to introduce you to my Mom. She is 5ft 8in. Slim with blonde bobbed hair, blue eyes and a wide smile.

A beauty.

You’ll find her dressed in kaftans or jeggings, biker boots or dresses.

Confident.

Her tasteful tattoos and piercings would suggest a free spirit…

The 1000 Moms Project is an amazing project working with Moms in Haiti.  I am writing this today, joining with hundreds of others who are publicly thanking their Mothers on Mothers Day – and in doing so blessing another.

 

Dear Mom,

Where do I start with you?

Do I start with your humour – your ability to dance in the rain – how you find scripture for every situation.

Do I start with pain and suffering and loss.

I should of course start with faith… afterall faith is your starting point.

Or I could combine all of the above, as you do and thank you for showing me that:

Through it all – you find Him. He is in control. Through it all – He has us in His hand.

I’ve heard people ask you ‘Why do you bother with God with all of your problems’?

I‘ve heard you say time and time again. ‘It’s because of God I can face life!’

I’ve seen you love your son through the painful diagnosis of Schizophrenia,

I’ve seen you bounce up Lye High Street on a Space Hopper.

I’ve seen you love through drug addiction,

I’ve seen you shopping wearing odd shoes.

I’ve heard you scream out my Dad’s name as you let him go into eternity,

I’ve seen you rock ‘n’ roll with my Dad and bring the room to standstill.

 Mid 70’s me watching the rock n rollers.

I’ve known you love me through years of sickness,

I’ve seen you go into a phonebox in Stourbridge just to laugh hysterically.

I’ve seen you lying in a hospital bed after a brain haemorrhage,

I’ve seen God in His wisdom grace you with more time.

I’ve seen Hope exude. Despair rage. Faith hide,

I’ve seen you distracted with sequins and glitter.

I see you hurt now, as your own Mom drifts away,

I see you offer her times of happiness in her space.

3 Generations

I’ve seen lives transformed through you opening up our house to anybody that wants to enter in,

I’ve seen meals multiply. The table becoming the sacred place. The kitchen becoming the church.

You teach us that God loves to rip open the box that we have put Him in.

A prayer warrior. A party goer.

In seeing all of this I have learned that the joy of the Lord is a gift, to choose, to absorb –  to become our strength.

But I think you get the message.

You give me, us, the gift of life – not just natural birth but the gift of life birthed through faith and a life lived fully in Christ.

Thank you Momski.

Keep dancin’

Love you.

Shell x