Happy Birthday, Mom! You Sure Make Me Want to Up My Game!
Today is my sweet mother-in-law’s 94th birthday. It’s such a good time to express my love and gratitude for her — especially because if it weren’t for the love that she and Dad had for each other, then their precious gift of their son to me would never have been. Mom’s life represents my life with the most precious, loving, tender and giving man I ever knew. Was he a perfect man? No. But he was perfect for me.
Oh how I thank Mom for the MANY prayers for us right from the very beginning when I was 12 and he was 13 — when we were just kids and didn’t know about life and responsibilities and what true love was all about. I thank her (and my mom) for praying us together.
I will always love the story of her turning her little ceramic Holland boy and girl away from each other when we had a spat, and when we made up, she put them back together again. That story tells a lot about her encouragement, her prayers and her support of us for so many years. I thank Mom for instilling such strong faith in her son, for the man of God he was, for the sense of humor, and, even for those “perfection” qualities that made him so detailed, always expecting excellence from all of us. I thank her for instilling in him his musical gifts that gave so many people such encouragement and joy. I thank her for everything about this precious man that filled my life, and so many others, with love and joy.
Our love for each other stood the test of time, the test of raising kids, the test of tough times and the good times, the test of sickness and in health, the test of trusting God through every challenge and the greatest test of all — the test of “till death do us part”. She never wanted to see her son go to heaven before she did, but her resilience, strong faith and trust in God during those times even gave me the fortitude to carry on strong.
I share Mom’s 94th birthday with you, my FB friends and family, to show you an example of what a mother-in-law should look like — oh, not the exterior, though she is and always has been a beautiful, stately woman, but she did the best of what God called her to do — to be a Proverbs 31 woman — the one that her children ALL rise up and call her blessed. Sure makes me want to up my game!
Mom, I celebrate the gift of you into my life and to so many others who have been impacted by your grace, dignity, and beauty for so many years! I love you so much……Donna