Thank your mom and don’t take advantage of her kindness!

I know that one of the challenges in today’s society is that moms are supposed to be a combination of superman, Mr. Clean, Einstein and a Teddy Bear. The difficulty is that moms are in theory tasked with doing literally everything and are seldom given credit or time out to let their hair down. I was so fortunate to have the supermom type for my mother! She was a stay at home mom who was able to instill in me the notion of respect, hard work pays off, show kindness to all, no work was ever beneath a man and always say thank you and I love you.

I know that a generation forward the majority of moms have full time jobs and careers but are still expected to know everything, be in multiple places at once and have multiple graduate degrees to help with homework and still raise their husbands too. I have that kinda of wife who is an incredible mom to my kids, our grandson and now over the past 30 years been that type of person to many in the churches we have shepherded and kids and teens that are part of Barrio Nuevo today. The sad fact is that seldom do I truly show my appreciation to my superstar Anne! I can remember when we were first married almost 44 years ago joking about that because she wasn’t my mom I didn’t have to celebrate Mother’s Day.

My mom has been gone almost 10 years and at times I catch myself all teary eyed because she is still a real part of my life. I wouldn’t be a good cook if it weren’t for my mom! I wouldn’t care about having a clean house and doing laundry if it weren’t for her. She is the one who taught me about being honest, credible and real. She’s the one that would take the time to force me to talk about my day. At times, I didn’t like my mom because she was always too honest and frank about life ‘stuff’.

The legacy she has left me has impacted the way I live my life today in working with at risk youth and now being a grandparent. Please see that every day is Mother’s Day! Clearly most of us take advantage of our moms, aunts and grandmas. So please find time today and every day to pray for them and show them that you have learned from their example!

Miss you Mom!