i was blessed with a mother who loved

Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. … Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all! Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise. (Proverbs 31:10-12, 28-31 NLT)

I was blessed with a mother who loved my father, stayed at home to raise her children, was almost always there when we needed her. She was the classic mother.

Yes, she had her failings and her problems. But she also had a lot of love for us.
And she taught us the best way she could.

She took us to church, and many times was my Bible school teacher. She taught us about the love of God and about the Bible at home as much as she could. All of her activity, just about, was centered around the church.

She did what she could to bring us up in the knowledge of God and his grace.
I have known a lot of people over the years who came from dysfunctional families.

Maybe the mother was an alcoholic or abusive. Maybe she was an absent or uncaring mother. It could be that she was a mother who enabled her husband in the abuse of the children.

Since I have gotten older, it amazes me at the kinds of mothers there are in the world that are absolutely and positively not like mine.

As a child, I figured that I was the norm. And I think that for the most part, I was.

But how sad it is to see others who didn’t have what I had: a loving, caring mother who loved her husband and her family.

My wife had a mother like that, too. Even though our mothers were as different as night and day in a lot of ways, at the same time, they were the same quality of mother. Both loved their husbands and took care of their families full-time.

And I am so grateful. I am grateful that I had a mother who was like that. I am grateful that she had a mother who was like that, and that I have a wife who is a mother like that.

God blessed me. And he blessed my father when he gave him my mother. He knew that, too, all his life, and died secure in the knowledge that if anything was true, his wife loved him and loved her children.

Thank God for our mothers. Let us publicly praise them