I came across this photo the other day of my mother getting off the plane in Dublin, Ireland on her honeymoon. She was twenty-six years old.
She was so in love with my father. Her favorite Shakespearean sonnet that captivated her heart and soul is,
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”
Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare
She had no way of knowing when she said, “I do” that she would only have my father beside her for seven years. He died when he was thirty-four and she was thirty-three leaving her with three children under the age of six.
She asked God for two things;
1-That she would see each one of her children commit their lives to Christ at an early age
2-That she would be able to send each one of us to college.
God answered both prayers. One of the main reasons I was drawn to Christ and his Kingdom was that I found my mother’s love for him compelling.
My mum never re-married and she’s now about to mark her eighty-third birthday. As I celebrate her today I am deeply grateful for many things.
Her love for God
Her gift of my very first library card, ‘We may not be able to afford to travel but we can bring the world into our home through books.”
Her love of classical music
Her compassionate understanding of my need to rescue broken things and pets and people
Her encouragement to choose a Seminary in London rather than Edinburgh which would have been much closer to home, “You need to understand that God is with you wherever you go.”
Her laughter and her love of life.
Thank you Father for a mother who loves you more than she loves me so she can let me follow your heart and not hers’-that is a gift
If you would like to share how your mom’s life has impacted your life, I’d love to read them