My Mum – The Epitome of Sacrifice

I’m sure that most girls think that their Mum is the best Mum. And really, so they should!  My Mother, however, actually is the best.

My Mother, my Mum, my Mummy.

She is the epitome of sacrifice to me.  I have seen her grow and change over the course of my life and I have seen how she has loved and cared and sacrificed for her family as well as for people whom she barely knew.

I have grown to see that the things that my Mum did for me as a child did not go unnoticed, but they often did appear to go unappreciated.  That’s what sacrifice is.

The ability to do things, day in day out, without thanks and without demanding anything in return.  My Mum has been my example in so many ways.

My Mum has taught me the value of seeing people beyond their circumstances.

She taught me the value of people and that you never really know their value until they are gone.

My Mum taught me to push through the tears and to keep going – the sun will rise.

My Mum taught me the ability to sacrifice time and resources – the ability to be generous with what you have.  My Mum made clothes to fundraise for school events without thanks so that other children had the ability to participate.

My Mum sacrificed her time and her energy to make me the most fabulous clothes – I was in a league of my own and never had to worry about wearing the same as any other person.  My Mum was so skilled and talented.

My Mum went out of her way to do special things to celebrate special times.  She got me out of bed late one night to celebrate an award that I’d been given because friends had arrived and she was proud of me.

My Mum taught me to embrace everyone. My friends were always accepted and loved as if they were Mum’s kids.  They would spend time with Mum if I wasn’t home!

My Mum taught me to give beyond what I have and to go beyond where I thought possible.  She showed me that I have a great capacity because I first saw it in her.

My Mum taught me how to work – you do the best that you can at everything that you do.  Be proud of your efforts and give your best. Mum taught me that it’s important to work hard and to persevere at tasks until they are completed.

My Mum taught me to respect myself – my appearance, my words, my ethics.

My Mum taught me the value of spending time learning to enjoy things that others enjoy doing.  She spent time doing things with me – we learned how to do craft together and she taught me how to sew, bake, garden, paint, and how to journal.

My Mum dreamed ideas into me that are now becoming a reality in my life.  She sowed ideas and interests showing me greater things than I could think on my own.

My Mum will never really realise all the things that she has taught me.

So much of what I have learned has now only been realised as I have grown older.

Now that I am married and have my own family, I understand in such an incredible and humbling way, just what My Mum did for me and her family.

I understand this because now I want to do the same for my family.

We have laughed and cried and spent hours talking and learning together and building a friendship – a true mother-daughter bond.

My Mum is an incredible woman.

She is a generous woman.

She is a beautiful woman.

She is a caring and loving woman.

She is a sacrificial woman.

She is … My Mum.

I love you Mum.

Breathing in Love…

As I write this tonight, I am laying on my beautiful bed.  Next to me is my empty Chai latte mug, my Bible and my current devotional – Daily Steps for God Chicks.  As I look around me, as I recall the things in my house, I’m reminded that life is good.  My life is full.

Because of Who my God is, I lack for nothing.

Because I am a daughter of the King of kings, nothing is missing from my table.

My table is set before, prepared since the beginning of time.  I simply need to reach out and lay hold, gratefully, of the things that my Heavenly Father has so generously provided.

These things, as I continue to look around and reflect, are incomparable really to the one item that takes pride of place in my life.  My Bible.

My Bible, as read and ragged as the edges and pages are, is my greatest possession.  It is the greatest item that I have, next to salvation.

My Ted, my loving husband, is my most cherished gift from God.  But, even he, in his handsomeness and loveliness, does not compare to the God who loves me and is given to me in the pages of my Bible.

My Bible gives me the ability to know His incomparably great riches and His unending mercy, love and grace that abounds to me, around me and for me.

My God, because of my relationship with the Father, whispers to me each moment of the day as I breathe that I am loved.  My God breathes life into me and as a result, I feel myself breathing in Him.

I feel the cares of the world and the desires of and for the future float away as I meditate on the simple yet almost incomprehensible truth that I am loved and that I have always been loved with a love that has never been and will never be tarnished.

I revel in that knowledge.  As I close my eyes and breathe deeply, it gives me confidence that the hurts of the past, that both Ted and I have endured from others, are covered in God’s love, for His love covers a multitude of sins – those committed by others as well as ourselves.

What a wonderful thought to end a fabulous day on – I am loved.

I am held secure in God’s hands.

I am covered and abundantly filled with God’s forgiveness, His grace, God’s mercy and His love.  Most of all, His love.

I pray that you, too, would know and experience His great and powerful love.

Love.  Selah.