My Mum

It's safe to say, like many other teenagers, I take my mum for granted. I get very used to her doing things for me. She makes me cups of tea when she arrives home from a long tiring day of work. She cooks my meals, does my washing and ironing. Mum doesn't just remember her tasks for the day, she remembers all of ours too, she's organised for  all of us!


Unfortunately it's only now that I realise just how selfless my mum is, and always has been.


Many people know that my dad had Multiple Sclerosis. This meant that not only did mum have 3 young children (who became teenagers) to parent, but also a terminally ill husband to care for.
As we got older, more and more of the parenting fell on mum as dad became too ill. I can't imagine how hard this must have been! It is well known that a mum's life is busy and hectic and full of responsibilities, but mum's was even more so.
It undoubtedly would have been a million times easier for mum to let dad be put into a care home, then she could have worked and had more time for herself or something. But out of her immense love for dad and our family she didn't. She didn't do what was easiest for her. Dad stayed at home, with us, until he died in November 2009. I, for one, think that's pretty amazing...


Throughout all of this I know mum has been constantly praying for us, her children. Constantly leading us to Christ. Always loving us, even when we were difficult.


I love my mum, for so many reasons. Her unique laugh (always followed by a snort), her sense of humour, her endless patience, the way her eyes close when she smiles just like mine do, her freckles, her hatred of cut flowers, her rubbish jokes, her amazingly godly example, her selflessness, her love for her children. 


I thank God for blessing me with such a beautiful mum.


In truth, I'm frustrated with this post. It's a bit pants to say the least. I can't fully portray to you how self-sacrificing and loving my mum is, so I'll just leave you with a quote I discovered today.

"A mother…by her planning and industry night and day, by her willfulness of love, by her fidelity, she brings up her children. Do not read to me the campaigns of Caesar and tell me nothing about Napoleon’s wonderful exploits.  For I tell you that, as God and the angels look down upon the silent history of that woman’s administration, and upon those men-building processes which went on in her heart and mind through a score of years;—nothing exterior, no outward development of kingdoms, no empire-building, can compare with what mother has done.  Nothing can compare in beauty, and wonder, and admirableness, and divinity itself, to the silent work in obscure dwellings of faithful women bringing their children to honor and virtue and piety." Henry Ward Beecher