What Are Mothers Made Of? :)

As I tried to let Mama rest on her birthday, and make her a special birthday dinner with the girls, I was reflecting on just what does make a mother what she is. Of course, I do think and feel like a mother in many of these areas, but I am not a mother yet! :) I think we should all stop now and then and think over how much mothers do for us! :) Here are my thoughts on the subject:

I can take care of a household, do all the chores, fix meals, and keep laundry running and folded, but until I can do all of that while holding a baby in one arm and a 3 year old by the other hand, I will not know how it feels to be a mother.

I may be able to handle all the problems that come up in my life, but until I can look a weeping six-year old in the face, and listen to their little tragedies without laughing, and help them through their trials without making them feel like ridiculous "children", I do not have the ever-ready understanding of a mother.

I may be able to wrap presents beautifully and concisely, but until I can step over the untidy makings of an eight-year-old boy's gift-box to lay paper down before he spatters the table with paint and all the time praise his ingenuity, I haven' the patience of a mother.

I may be able to make a pie-crust flaky to perfection, but until I can make one with a sister standing in between my arms, helping me roll the dough flat, I don't have the foresight of a mother.

I may be able to sew a doll dress, ice a cake, do any of a number of things eight times faster than a little child, but until I can let them help, and not mind the crooked stitches, or lumpy icing, I won't be thinking like a mother.

I may be preparing a gorgeous meal, and setting the table beautifully, but until I can let a little brother light the candles, even if he uses up ten matches, and until I can all the while thread a needle for a little sister eight-hundred times, and still emerge from the kitchen with a smile on my face, I don't have the multi-tasking abilities of a mother.

I may be able to appreciate great works of art and beautiful music, but until I can hear the "Moonlight Sonata" played fifty times over, and until I can look at a 6 year old's drawing and see as much promise, and as much beauty as if it were hanging in a museum or recorded on a c.d., I don't have the eyes and ears of a mother...

Thanks Mama! :) Love, Rachel