Forgive Your Mothers Day

I have been known to struggle with Mother's Day, because of my own issues, really, because looking back now, I really think she did a great job. I loved her. I still love her. I can't wait to see her again. My brother kept her to himself for years and I missed her for so long, and now they're both out of my life, one because of death, the other because of estrangement. How much better it would have been on Mother's Day to get together and celebrate her, but that is not possible because of one person's decisions, not mine. I guess you have to decide always what to do in view of one other person or other persons and their preferences and/or choices. It would be good if we could develop an eternal perspective on everything. We are actually called to forgive, and what can you add to this? The Lord's Prayer where it says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," I guess most people don't really follow this. Or like some, maybe you, maybe me, we prefer to decide or possibly even figure out if we have or if we want to forgive the other person. I am a firm believer that unforgiveness makes people sick and kills them in the end. I bet the majority of diseases that kill people are made worse by unforgiveness, if not actually caused by unforgiveness. I cannot quote the science on this, but I know it is true. Bitterness and unforgiveness is the two-headed monster that lurks around us all, as in 1 Peter 5:8, "...the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." My mother loved her children. She did not play favorites. I am sure she was not happy with the estrangement between two of her children before one of them passed away without reconciling, and now another one that has actually cut a couple of different ways. The details are unnecessary. All I know is that love can be messy but it is necessary for our survival. I am so glad that all my issues with my mother were healed a long time before she died and I will always remember the day I fell in love with her again, and I fall in love with her again every time I remember it. Forgiveness is of the heart. God forgives us again and again in this life as our hearts reach out to him. It is not so much a matter of mentally understanding what we have been told took place on a cross all those years ago, but what happens when we realize we need his forgiveness and are willing to receive it. I can't explain it but I know it's true, and so do you, when your heart is stretched until it tears and then you allow the tears to come and the heart to mend, and it happens again and again. I never became a mother or a grandmother but I have a mother and two grandmothers in heaven and I live among children of other mothers and I just want to say congratulations to every one of you, and I pray that many more women become mothers because this world needs more mothers, unselfish, forgiving, merciful and wonderful mothers. No one can take your place. Happy Mother's Day. You are so loved.