Motherhood is defined by the Advanced English Dictionary as the kinship relation between an offspring and its mother. The relationship between a mother and her children is naturally a very strong one and this may be attributable to the bond formed during the 9-month period of gestation.
Mothers and Fathers are celebrated annually but it is amusing that Mother’s Day is celebrated more than once each year. The International Women’s Day is marked on March 8 every year; countries such as the United Kingdom and Nigeria celebrate mothers on the second Sunday in March (also known as Mothering Sunday in the Anglican Communion) while in the United States, the second Sunday in May is for celebrating mothers. There must be something worth celebrating about mothers!
As a young child, I learned the words of this popular poem by Ann Taylor (1782-1866):
“Who sat and watched my infant head
When sleeping on my cradle bed
And tears of sweet affection shed?
My Mother’’
The words meant a lot more to me when several decades later, I became a mother myself.
I am blessed to be a mother of three remarkable young men. Has the journey been a smooth one? I wish I could say it was. However, despite all the sleepless nights, anxieties, worries, heartaches and disappointments, it has been a worthwhile and fulfilling experience. Being a mother in these times is more challenging than when I started out almost 3 decades ago, our world is evolving, and certain hitherto unknown concepts and terminologies are now prevalent. The state of the world notwithstanding, time-tested principles of honesty, integrity, empathy and kindness are still very much relevant in the upbringing of children.
It is common knowledge that mothers play a pivotal role in the family and this isn’t limited to the domestic sphere but cuts across the spiritual and financial aspects of family life. God specially created women as emotional and intuitive beings, we just know certain things which might not even be so obvious to others especially things pertaining to our children and family. That has been my experience over the years, and I am sure it is not peculiar to me.
My heart goes out to all women who are trusting God for children and I pray that the Lord will make them joyful mothers of children as He promised in His word that none will be barren in the land. ***
Naturally, Mothers are nurturers and highly intuitive and add to this the fact that they tend to spend more time with their children than Fathers, they exert a lot of influence on the children. There is a popular saying in my culture that a good child belongs to the Father while a bad one is for the Mother. This is an irony but then it goes to show the prejudice against women especially in most Patriarchal societies where the Father as the head of the family takes all the accolade for the children’s successes even if he had a minimal input in their lives.
A fitting tribute to Mothers is encapsulated in the poem by William Ross Wallace (1819-1881) ‘The Hand That Rocks the Cradle’. Here is an excerpt:
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place ;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
I will use the following words to describe a Mother:
Marvelous
Optimist
Tender
Helper
Exceptional
Role model
Motherhood is for a lifetime. A young man once told me that a ‘boy’ will always need his mother’s love. I believe him!
*** Exodus 23:26
