My Mama

Because I didn't get online all weekend (we only have dial up at home - another story for another day) and because my tardily mailed Mother's Day card won't get to my mom until today anyway, I've decided to extend Mother's Day in order to tell everyone how great my mom is.  Because she is.

One of my mom's spiritual gifts is faith.  If something really needs to happen she says, "let's just pray for that to happen."  So we do and it does.  She passed her faith down to me and it makes life so much less stressful.  It's how she and I both got better jobs, how we knew which houses to move to, and a myriad of other things.  Once she was touched on the head by an angel when she walked into a house for sale and told that it would be hers.  It took a miracle but it happened and I grew up in that house.  When I tell her about good things happening, she says, "See!  It's God!"  She's shown me that when you look for God's workings in life, you find them everywhere.

One of her other strengths is her sense of humor.  If we kids did something kind of bad but were really funny about it, we'd often get a pass.  We used to sit around the dinner table trying to out-funny each other.  The Kennedys had touch football, we had one-liner competitions.  To this day, if I can think of something clever and maybe a little sarcastic in response to a stressor, I feel better about it and can move on with my life. 

Mama also has mad coping skills.  If something difficult happens, she chooses to fight it or come to terms with it.  Either way, she gets through it and move on.  She doesn't dwell on it or let it take over her life.  The only thing worth that much energy is God so she directs her thoughts accordingly.  I cannot thank my mom enough for the coping skills she has emulated.  Seeing that I have the power to direct my thoughts and emotions has shaped my life in a far more positive way than if I had let them run wild.

In less life changing, but also important areas, she's also a great writer, willing to take in those in need, can work a crowd like no one's business, and willing to take risks with her hair styles because worst case scenario you let it grow back.  She has an open mind, she works hard and she knows how to have fun.  I love all these things about her and so many more.  I can't thank her enough for her impact on my life. 

Thank you Mama, a.k.a. GrannyGirl, for being a Godly older woman teaching this younger woman how to live.  You're a very Proverbs 31 kind of lady.

~MM