The Dutch irises and yellow daffodils are blooming beneath the Dogwoods and Magnolias.  Lady Bankshire roses spill their sweet perfume into the air. A bountiful harvest of sweet corn and red strawberries are making their way onto hot waffles and cold shortcakes.  The phones are busy at the florists around town.  The signs are clear that this Sunday the Nation will again observe the annual celebration of that great American day, Mother’s Day.  Families will worship together and hear again that ancient and unchanging Godly admonition:  Honor they mother.  And after the breakfasts in bed, luncheons out and special Sunday dinners in the dining room, those beloved women, our mothers, will arrange the cards and keep the memories of this day, more than any other day, when they were showered with affection, waited upon, called upon and honored.  They deserve all of it, every bit of it, especially The Little Things, writes Katherine Nelson Davis:

 

It is the little things that count
And give a mother pleasure -
The things her children bring to her
Which they so richly treasure…
The picture that is smudged a bit
With tiny fingerprints,
The colored rock, the lightning bugs,
The sticky peppermints;
The ragged, bright bouquet of flowers
A child brings, roots and all -
These things delight a mother’s heart
Although they seem quite small.
A mother can see beauty
In the very smallest thing
For there’s a little bit of heaven
In a small child’s offering.

 

Mother stays with you throughout your life.  Her words and her actions resonate.  Yes, we can hear her voice echoing across time when we repeat to our children the lessons that mother taught us:  Sit up straight, use your napkin, stop fidgeting and pay attention, say thank you and if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?  Do you remember?  She said those things to us.

 

Every mother molds and shapes her own children and those entrusted to her care, in ways large and small, from lessons as important as treating others with kindness and adults with courtesy to tasks as small as how to fold laundry.  Years later, as we teach our own children to fold laundry, we might smile to recall that it was our mother—your mother—who taught us how to make a bed or fold a towel in a particular way.  It is also probable that she was teaching you in the same way her mother had taught her—that is the way it is, you know—just as her mother taught her courtesy and just as she taught you.  Those gentle hands carried the ingrained lessons of many generations, lessons honed and reinforced over many, many years.

 

On Mother’s Day we honor mothers all across the Nation.  We also honor grandmothers and great-grandmothers, whether or not we were fortunate enough to have known them in life.  Charlotte Gray wrote:  Children and mothers never truly part, bound in the beating of each other’s heart.  Her words speak to the heritable nature of a mother’s love.  It passes through the generations.

 

In today’s busy world working mothers must master home and office, and many do it with amazing dexterity, balanced on the high wire without a net holding lives and livelihoods in her hands.  Still, she must find time to nurture, to cuddle, to listen, to heal and to teach.  Henry Ward Beecher observed that the mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.  This is surely true, for with every action, every look, every word, be they soft and loving or briskly authoritative, mothers teach their children.  Their influence upon the world is incalculable.

 

George Washington, the first President of our great country, that general, who fought the elements and the enemy at Valley Forge, said:

 

My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw.   All I am I owe to my mother.  I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.

 

President Abraham Lincoln said:

 

I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life:  All that I am, or hope to be,

I owe to my angel mother.

 

President Andrew Jackson said of his mother:

 

There was never a woman like her.  She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness.  The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after all, the only capital I had to start life with, and on that capital I have made my way.

 

Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted in 2015:

 

My Mother's maiden name was Marion MOON! I guess it was destiny.

 

The leaders of our future are being molded and shaped right now by their mothers.  It is hard to imagine that those small faces being wiped clean by their mother’s hand might someday smile at us from the Oval Office, or that those chubby fingers might someday wave to us from the surface of distant worlds.

 

But that childish confidence is fostered by their mother’s love, urged on by her unwavering support, and raised up by her tender sympathy.  Their mother’s support will give them the wings to fly high and to achieve great success.  Surely these future leaders will someday echo the words of our greatest and credit their mothers for their success—their angel mothers.  Her prayers will follow them, and us.  She will look down from Heaven, waiting.

 

Every child deserves a mother worthy of such sentiments.  And as a nation, we are fortunate to possess so many wonderful mothers and those whose hearts are wide enough and whose love is deep enough to be mothers to those who need them so much.  To them I dedicate this poem, Mother’s Love, by Michael Olakunle Adesanya:

There are times when only a Mother's love
Can understand our tears,
Can soothe our disappointments
And calm all of our fears.

There are times when only a Mother's love
Can share the joy we feel
When something we have dreamed about
Quite suddenly is real.

There are times when only a Mother's faith
Can help us on life's way
And inspire in us the confidence
We need from day to day.

For a Mother's heart and a Mother's faith
And a Mother's steadfast love
Were fashioned by the Angels
And sent from God above.