I Hate Mother's Day!

Mom's are the makers of holidays, without moms, holidays wouldn't even happen.  We bake the Christmas goodies, decorate the house, stuff the Easter Eggs, buy the gifts, etc.  This isn't a problem with most holidays.  As a mom, we enjoy it, we love to make those memories for our families.  The only problem I have is with the one holiday that is to celebrate mom.  It just doesn't seem right to plan a holiday celebrating yourself.

I think it goes back to the traditions we grew up with.  I grew up in a family that had a storybook Christmas, picture perfect Easters, and Fourth of July's with Fried Chicken, Watermelon, Parades and fireworks.  We even had green food on St Patrick's Day.  My husband however, grew up in a family that didn't celebrate holidays.  He was in high school before they had a Christmas tree in their house.  You know, the kind of family that gives underwear as a birthday present.

So Mother's Day, who plans that?  Dad, right?  Well, you can see the problem when the Dad grew up not celebrating ANY holidays and Mom grew up celebrating EVERY holiday in detail.  I have the added complication that I have four sons!!!  Guys just don't think about holiday type things.  It's more a girl thing.  Add to this situation that I haven't had a good track record when it comes to Mother's Day.

One of my first Mother's Day, my oldest was 2 years old, he gave me a VERY memorable present, chicken pox.  It was not just that he HAD chicken pox, he GAVE them to me.  I was sick for weeks (chicken pox is not fun as an adult).  The next year, we were moving homes, and I spent Mother's Day wall papering the new house.  The next year, at eight months pregnant, I had to wait 2 hours to be seated at a popular restaurant.  The year after that I worked 12 hours overtime!  AND the list goes on... I actually had one good memorable Mother's Day, 2002!  We went to Marie Calender's for dinner.  We had a baby with us so they sat us in the "kids" room and it was a little like eating at Chuckie Cheese, loud, crying kids, and bad service.  My oldest boys wrote me a poem. It made me cry. That was the best Mother's Day ever!  This year?  I was on a speed skating trip with my 16 year old.  He got sick and we spent 2 hours in Urgent Care in Colorado.  The oldest two, 23 and 19, sent me Happy Mother's Day text messages.  We went to hike Garden of the Gods, beautiful!  I fell, almost went over a cliff and split open my shin.  Not bad enough to need stitches but it shredded my favorite pair of jeans.

It's not actually the celebration, or the gifts that's important, I think it's knowing that you matter to your family.  For me, Mother's Day is just a reminder of how little my family thinks of me.  But then again, we don't give toilet paper much thought, but if it's not there... As a stay at home mom, the first thing I think of in the morning is my husband and children.  I spend my days doing things for them.  It's what I want to do and I usually love it but sometimes the selfish side of me flairs up, especially on Mother's Day.  "Who thinks of me first thing in the morning?  Who ever puts me first?  Who ever does anything for me?"  Me Me ME!!

Then it came to me.  There is someone who thinks of me first.  He puts me before himself in ALL that he does.  I'm his first thought in the morning and his last thought at night.  Everything in his character is for me.  He loves me so much that he is willing to die for me.  Actually, he did... Jesus died on the cross for me, JUST me.  I heard it said once, that if I was the only person in the world, Jesus would choose the cross again.  I AM His world!  The Creator of the universe did it all for me!

So I hate Mother's Day but it's just one day created by Hallmark to sell more cards.  I will rejoice on the other 364 days of the year that I am the most important person in the world to my Lord and that is MORE than enough!

I'm living on the eighth day, right now!