First she carried us for 9 months insider her body where we kicked, pushed and stretched to make room for ourselves among all her organs.  She carried our weight and suffered the changes our existence made to her life and body and then endured the pain of birth to bring us into this world.

Then began the years of middle of the night wake-ups, runny noses, gross smelly diapers, bouts of crying, bib-defying feedings, hauling baby gear, stepping on toys, comforting boo-boos, loss of social life and the never-ending efforts to teach us to behave with some semblance of human civility.

She suffered through our rebellious challenges to her authority, disobedience, immaturity, incompetence, naivety, “know-it-all-ness”, ingratitude, laziness and much more.

She lost sleep worrying about our health, our temperature, our grades, our friends, our values, our music, our recreation, our attitude, our feelings, our habits and especially our relationship with God.  She worried about whether or not we’d get hurt because we either crawled on the floor putting all we found in our mouths or drove too fast after we got our license.

She invested all she had and the best years of her life to make us what we are; and somehow she survived us!

Do you want to thank her?  Would you like for her to feel the satisfaction of knowing that all her efforts were not in vain?  Don’t just give her flowers, don’t just give her cards.  Grow up and become the person you know she wants you to become.  That’s what your Mom wants.  Give her that for Mothers’ Day.