How long do you wait?

This weekend will be a time of family gatherings, reunions, and celebrations. Regardless of your age, you have cause to join in the fun. Do you know what this Sunday is?

It is Mother’s Day! If you are reading this blog then you probably already started to think about your Mom. Your mother may have passed away or she might live around the corner. Either way, she was, is, and always will by the woman who brought you into this world and/or raised you. You were a gift to your mother so it only makes sense for us to bless her with gifts on Mother’s Day, right? WRONG!

Before you click the “x” to close this blog, hear me out. I am blessed with an amazing Mom. Each year as the stores and even the Internet attempt to guilt me into buying my mother gifts in order to show my appreciation and love for her…I sweat.

What could I possibly buy my mother to express my gratitude and love?

How can one item or a bouquet of them prove worthy of forty-plus years of parenting?

What gift could replace the heartache of living the past eighteen –plus years wondering where her youngest daughter is?

Is it even possible to spoil, love, and appreciate my mother even a tenth of what she deserves in one solitary day of the year? I think not.

Instead of focusing on this one day, I try to live as if each day is Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day for that matter) because I don’t know when tomorrow with my Mom might not be there. If we choose to wait for the calendar to tell us “appreciate your mother today”, your “today” may never arrive.

Of course I wish my Mom a “Happy Mother’s Day” and treat her to some kind of gift yet my goal is to make sure my Mom knows all 365 days of the year how important, appreciated, and blessed I am to have her as my mother. I pray daily for my parents’ biggest weight to be lifted, to know where their precious Heidi is. I strive to make my Mom proud and model being a good Mom, so she knows I was paying attention.

Little things I do throughout the year to let my Mom know I appreciate and love her:

*sneak her grocery list into my pocket and return with the items crossed off and everything put away before she knows I did it

*notice a BOGO deal…give the extra to my parents

*in the mood to shop, call Mom

*call daily just to say “Hi, how are you?” (Of course, this is only a couple hours after leaving their house, lol)

*green M & M’s magically appear next to her computer

*hours and hours of conversation with one of my best friends

As for Sunday, I planned to secretly download Jeanette Levellie’s new book to her Kindle but she beat me to it. Isn’t that funny? Maybe I’ll just make a chocolate cake with peanut frosting.

How do you celebrate Mother’s Day? Are you doing anything special this week in preparation for Sunday’s day of recognition? I look forward to hearing from you.

I don’t wait for a holiday to celebrate my parents…each day is a holiday when the people we love are in our lives. Thankfully, through a relationship with Jesus…our time doesn’t have to end ~ I have hope for eternity!