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“The Best Mom in the Whole Wide World” How many little voices have chimed those words, how many little fingers have gripped crayons and created masterpieces for their moms – the best mom in the whole wide world? I suppose there are millions of the “best” out there – as there should be. Every child deserves “the best mom in the whole wide world.” And yet some children don’t get to feel that pride and that joy when they think of their moms. Some sad hearts sink when they hear the word mom. From an early age, Susan and I knew we were some of the lucky ones. |
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We had ourselves one of those best moms in the whole wide world. And boy did we love her – so much so that we lived in constant fear that we would lose her. If she were late coming home on one of her rare nights out, we would lie in bed paralyzed with fear, listening for the crunch of her tires as she pulled into the driveway. When we did hear that beautiful sound of her coming through the door, we would finally breathe and allow our exhausted bodies to fall asleep, knowing that we still had our precious mommy all to ourselves.
I could never imagine living without the friendship, support and love of my mom. She was always there for us (still is!), sacrificing without a thought of herself, doing whatever it took to raise her four kids and give us what we needed. I always wondered how other kids survived without her. When I grew up, I saw what happened when kids didn’t have a mom like that – one of those best moms in the whole wide world. A child without that center of love, that guiding, sacrificing force that a child can always count on, is lost. And many of them never recover. They are little baby birds, fallen to the floor of the woods with no one to pick them up and keep them fed and warm until they are ready to fly. When I began working with youth, I had a mission: to be my mom to as many kids as possible. And I tried. But I quickly realized that my mission was impossible. There were too many kids. I could never sacrifice and live for each of them as a great mom does. In youth work there are boundaries and rules that don’t apply to a mother and her child. A mother gives her entire life to her child. A youth worker can not do that for her kids. Although, I could not become my mom for the kids I worked with, I did give them as much as I could – sometimes too much. I hope that it helped change their lives at least a bit. Now I am blessed to be a mom myself. I have a precious son and I strive daily to be the best mom I can be. I love him more than I ever imagined a human could love. Mothering is the strongest instinct – I would die in a second if it would save him. Nothing matters to me as much as protecting and loving my son. Watching Jackson grow and helping to guide his soul and teach him about the love of Christ is everything to me. |
Chaotic Mom says
I have laughed, and I sure have cried while reading through ALL of the Giving Thanks for Mother contest entries. And I’ve RE-READ them all since coming home, too.
I wish I could post ALL of them as winners, maybe send out some more books from my winnowed out collection. 😉
But I’ve FIANLLY published a winner and invite you to come on by and check out my post. I am working on a sidebar link to the winning post, but also a link to the contest post with ALL of the listed entries.
Chaotic Mom says
Wow. Yup, I’m just now finishing reading all of the entries, and re-reading a bunch of them.
It sounds like YOUR mom was a wonderful, inspiring example to you of what a mother should be. I liked reading what you had to say about youth work vs. being a mom, too. Your son is a very lucky boy to have such a great mom as you, and a wonderful grandmother, too. 😉
Annradha says
That’s a lovely post.Your mom sounds a lot like mine.Mine gives such unconditional love and I love her so much that I cannot imagine her not being around.I have twins myself and I try very hard to be the same kind of mom.Sometimes I feel like a failure though.
Jaime says
What a beautiful post! I also tried to “mother” the kids I taught. Oh how hard that was. I totally failed in some respects, but only because it was totally impossible.
Jennifer, Snapshot says
What a wonderful post. I hung on every word. I love the old seventies pic of you and Susan and mom. You can tell she had that mom thing down pat, because you were well-swaddled (something I never could do well) and had those cute little hats!
Gattina says
What a nice post ! Not all women have mother instincts, I were very lucky because after my birth my parents dropped me at my grandparents and they raised me until I were 7. My grandparents were lovely people and my grandmother a very intelligent and strong woman. She had quite a character ! My parents then remembered that they had a daughter and I had to go with them when I were 7. I always felt like a stranger with them, my mother was a real female and not a woman and my father womanized around. But the seed my grandmother had planted during these 7 first years, grow and made me to the woman I am today.