On Friday, May 2nd, I traveled to bring our son, Will, home from Jacksonville State University for the summer. In reality, he will only be home for a few weeks before he travels across the United States with the Seattle Cascades as a DCI (Drum Corps International) drum major. Please join us in praying for him as his Drum Corp will perform and compete two dozen times in 15 states between June 7th and August 9th. We are very proud of this accomplishment in his life, but sad to have so much less time with him home over the summer. It is true that blessing often brings stressing in our lives.

When I left our house for the six-hour round trip in the truck by myself I decided it was time to listen to and clean up my overloaded voicemail messages that there just doesn’t seem to be time to work through in everyday life. I kept many special voicemail messages from family, friends, and loved ones, and was especially touched to hear again the voice of several family and friends who have passed away in recent years. I also used the traveling time to listen to hundreds of voicemails and to respond to more than 60 of them with a call. In addition, I deleted 454 voicemails that had been fully handled and were no longer needed.

As I listened to all those messages I was deeply moved by the consistent, loving, encouraging messages of several mothers in my life. I heard numerous messages from our daughter, Ellie, the mother of our grandchildren. I heard more messages from my wife, Cindy, the mother of our children. I also heard dozens of messages from my mother, June, the woman who loved me first in this world. By the time I finished listening to all those messages I felt strongly compelled to call and thank those ladies specifically for the faithful, consistent, intentional ways they have loved me, our children, and our grandchildren. There were other spiritual mothers who had left messages as well. It was all I could do to get the words out of my mouth as my heart was so filled with love and gratitude.

I know that Mother’s Day is a difficult day for many. It reminds us that some mother-child relationships are broken and fragmented, some women have longed to be mothers and haven’t been given that privilege yet. Some mothers have lost children and some children have lost their mothers. Some mothers and children live so far apart that they don’t get to see each other as often as they would like and some live close in distance, but far in heart because of previous pains. Even so, this is an opportunity to thank God for the mothers in our lives. Some mothers carry their children in the wombs and some carry them in their hearts. If you are able, I hope you will use this time to thank your biological, adopted, and spiritual mothers for the ways they have invested in your life to make you who you are today.