Sacrifice

The Greatest Mother in the World

"My mother is the greatest mother in the world!" Everyone who loves their mother says it without hesitation, and every one of them is right. To the child who looks to her for guidance, protection, and love, a mother is the whole world. God designed that bond to begin before we ever draw a breath; the psalmist says He knit us together in our mother's womb. The bond formed by making life, giving life, and then nourishing that life is priceless. A mother sees her own eyes, smile, and laugh in her son or daughter, little reflections she never noticed in herself until she saw them in her child. She guides, because she wants her child to have the best of everything and to grow up in love and happiness. She protects, because this child is her world given form, with her stamp on every feature. And she loves with a love she never knew she had, a love that will sacrifice everything so her child can be happy. A mother who gives up her time, her health, and her money to build a better life for her children is truly an angel without wings. So, as cliché as it sounds: my mother is the greatest mother in the world, to me.

The Most Significant Lesson My Mother Taught Me

Some things in life can be taught in words. Others are learned by watching, and those lessons leave a mark that buries itself in your soul. The most significant lesson my mother taught me, simply by letting me watch her through the years, was sacrifice.

In my youth I did not understand her sacrifices, and I did not appreciate them. She gave up her health working jobs that did not value her, for the bare minimum in pay. She came home tired and hurting, and still she made time for my brothers and me. I did not realize how exhausted she was after working all night, coming home with her joints aching, and still standing at the stove to make us pancakes. I would soak mine in syrup until they were swimming, and she would tell me all that syrup was not good for me. Even bone-tired, she was still looking out for me. I thought breakfast was just breakfast. I did not know I was being taught love and sacrifice through her pain and her tiredness. Looking back now, I am in awe of her strength. She raised three sons who treasure her, and I can see that her love and sacrifice soaked into my brothers, because their children are their whole world.

She also gave us the gift of stories. My mother loves to read, and when we were young she would read to us. We sat there listening as she brought each book to life, our eyes filled with wonder, her voice taking on a life of its own with every page. Her passion for reading shaped me, and to this day my mother and I still read fiction together. We began reading the Dragonlance books back in the early '80s, and we still talk about them. My favorite character has always been Raistlin Majere. He was misunderstood by almost everyone around him, yet his intelligence made him stronger than all of them. He did bad things, but he wanted change, because he knew exactly what it felt like to be the weaker one. Maybe that is why he has stayed with me all these years. In a way, my mother understood that too: the world paid her the bare minimum and rarely saw her worth, but she was the strongest person I have ever known. Those shared stories have become anchors in my life. When I am down, I return to those memories and feel that connection and love all over again.

How My Mom's Influence Shaped My Life

My mother's influence has shaped every part of my life I can name, and probably many I cannot. Her love and sacrifice taught me to appreciate life, and that appreciation keeps me humble every day. Because of her, I do not take for granted the time, sacrifice, or love that anyone brings into a relationship with me. When someone takes time out of their busy life to share it with me, I know what it is worth. Time is the one thing you can never get back, and that makes someone's time priceless.

The foundation of living is love, and my mother showed me that love not only in words but in actions, every single day. Because of her, I hold my relationships close. Valuing those connections keeps me humble, because she taught me what it means to live a life of gratitude for the little things. Life can be gone in the blink of an eye, but the way you treat people lives on. My mother's love taught me that our actions here mean something, and that every one of them can help shape someone else's life. Whether it is a stranger, a friend, or family, each thing we do carries weight in someone's story. You cannot put a price tag on sincerity. Thank you, Aileen.

The Ways I Am Thankful for My Mother

I am thankful that my mother sacrificed her dreams. She wanted to travel and see the world. She wanted to go to college and become a writer or an accountant. Yet she laid those dreams down to raise my brothers and me with love. She sacrificed her health working physically demanding jobs for minimum wage to put clothes on our backs and food on our table. She gave up time for herself and gave it to us instead, so we could grow and learn to become better men by her example. She has spent her life making sure we could have a better one and chase the dreams we wanted. Her youth was given to me. I lived my youth with hope and ambition because my mother gave up hers to give us the best life she possibly could.

Sometimes I think about her dream of becoming a writer. She never got the chance to chase it. But every poem and story I write carries her fingerprints, because she is the one who first put books in my hands and read them to me in that voice. Maybe her dream did not die. Maybe it was simply passed down.

The Advice I Hold Dear Because of My Mother

My mother's advice comes through her actions, and everything she does comes from sincere love. That sincerity shows up in little acts of affection: a laugh we share over something we lived through or watched together, or a story from the past about how silly and selfish I could be. Despite all my flaws, she sees my good qualities first. She can still point out my bad choices, but she does it with love and wisdom, to help me grow, never to hold a grudge. I may not always agree, but I always know that what she tells me comes from her heart and that she only wants the best for me. I carry that within my heart, soaked into my spirit: sincerity, honesty, love. I treasure these qualities because they are branches that grew from the roots of my mother's sacrifice.

I Want to Celebrate and Honor My Mom

Mom, I want to honor you, because I watched you work through the pain of a life of sacrifice, and I never knew it would leave such a mark, not only on my mind but on my heart and soul. The love that shines from your eyes is something I will never forget, until the day I leave this earth. That love feeds my soul and fuels my heart.

The only way I can describe your eyes is to compare them to the eyes of Jesus Christ. I imagine Him hanging on the cross, looking down at His children with love, and asking the Father to forgive them, because they did not know what they were doing. The look in His eyes was not one of pain, but of a love that only a mother who loves her child could understand. No matter what that child has done, her eyes will always be filled with love. As Christ sacrificed His life on the cross for His children, you, Mother, sacrificed your life, your dreams, and your time for me.

I celebrate your love. I honor your sacrifice. I love you, Mom.

Aileen Vivan Ferguson, THE GREATEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD!

Written By Dr. George Shannon Ferguson