She loves me like a rock…

If you asked one hundred people to describe, with one word, their mother, you would probably get one hundred different answers. Oh, I’m sure there would be a few repeats, but because God made each of us unique, it stands to reason the way others perceive us is unique as well.

If I had to pick one word to describe my mother, that word would have to be resilient. Webster’s dictionary defines resilient as:

-capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture; tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change; rolling with the punches.

Yep…that’s my mom. Tough, maybe not by choise, but by the “cards life has dealt her.” This is not to say that she is not happy or has not had a good life. Just the opposite. I think if you would ask her, you would first get a list of the good things in her life. This reminds me of another great lady in my life; Mom Shahan, my mother’s mom.

Mom Shahan was widowed a relatively young age and dealt with hardship her whole life. But I never heard her complain. Just the opposited was true. In fact, when we would go to visit her, she insisted on doing things for us, even though she had lost her leg to diabetes (and eventually lost her other leg as well.) She seemed, to me, the most joyfilled person I had ever met. I remember sleeping with her when I was little and having her hold me close and pray or sing me to sleep.

My own mother was the same way, putting other’s needs above her own. She doesn’t know a stranger; in fact, if a middle age woman strikes up a conversation with you in line at the grocery store and ends it by giving you a hug, it’s probably my momma. I even recall the day my brother died. We were sitting at my kitchen table with the coroner as he asked questions about Jim. It was gut wrenching! He was so nice and polite and I remember my mother telling him that she felt so sorry for him, that he had to have such a job. She felt sorry for him! She had just lost her son and yet, through her grief, she felt compassion for another. To this day, seventeen years later, I’ll never forget the look on that man’s face!

No matter what I did in life, all of the things that surely disappointed and frustrated my mom, she was always there for me. She always loved me and had her arms open to welcome me back home. What a blessing and an example of how to love my own children she has been. I love you mom!

And so, the question remains to be asked; if you had just one word to describe your mother, what word would it be? Think about; ponder on it a while. And then, let me know. Either way, I wish all mothers out there a very blessed day!

“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” — Abraham Lincoln

My Mama loves me, she loves me
She get down on her knees and hugs me
Lord she loves me like a rock
She rocks me like the rock of ages, she loves me
She loves me, loves me, loves me, loves me.
                                                    -Paul Simon