Day 126: Back and Forth, Back and Forth

I'll love you forever. I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

Ever read that book? If you're a mom, or even if you are not a mom, but have a mother's heart, I'll Love You Forever sticks with you.

My son woke up just a few minutes ago, and feel quickly back to sleep in my arms. I sat holding him, and rocked him back and forth, back and forth. I pictured the pages of that small paperback book with the drawings of a mom through the years doing that very thing, late at night with her boy in her arms.

I've been thinking about being a mom, and what that means. Daily, I am to die more and more to self. The more I fight it, the worse of a mother I am. The more I cling to my own desires, the less I honor the spirit of motherhood. 

It's as simple as that.

I've also been thinking about women who aren't mothers. Off the top of my head and can think of several women, who never had children, that I consider some of the greatest examples of womanhood and models for motherhood. One woman in particular is in our small group Bible study. Our church secretary put it beautifully when she wrote that there isn't a baby in our whole church that hasn't been loved on by this woman. It's true. My children adore her. They look forward to their times when they get to interact with her in their different ways, as she serves in different capacities in the church.

It's so beautiful.

As much as Mother's Day is a day for mothers, I believe that it's really a day to celebrate women who model the beauty and grace of biblical womanhood. Whether a parent or not, a woman has the opportunity to bless the next generation should she look to follow the precepts and principles laid out in Titus 2. That's mostly what I'm thinking of as this Sunday approaches.

Older women... are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children... that the word of God may not be reviled.

Titus 2:3-5*

*This is a beautifully detailed section of Scripture highlighting some how-to's. I just wanted to emphasize the relationship between the older and younger women, and what that relationship is meant to do.