10. My mom has always loved music. She would listen to music all the time and has a wonderful singing voice. I took piano for 6 or 7 years because she thought it was important. My younger siblings have gone on to great heights in performance and composition. I love music now, and it seems so far that my children do too, and that's attributable in no small part to my mom.
9. My mom models sincerity in how she speaks. I still use way too much sarcasm, but by comparison in a UK context, I look incredibly earnest, and I'm sure she's part of that.
8. My mom loves to play games. A few games that I can remember us playing, just off the top of my head: Spades, Hearts, Aggravation, King's Corner, Monopoly, Candyland, Cranium, Geek, Bridge (now my favourite), and the life-saver for those long car trips between Kansas City and Houston, the Alphabet game as we looked for words that started with each letter of the alphabet. Mom was pretty dominant at that game, finding just the right word when she needed it. As I write that, I wonder if perhaps she was putting us on sometimes, but then I go back to #9.
7. My mom is the master at looking for a bargain and saving money. I certainly haven't always agreed with the results of such frugality (not least because I've been too interested in getting the 'name brand' at times), but the example overall has been wonderful.
6. My mom has lived with a significant amount of chronic pain for most of my life, and she just gets on with things. Almost never complaining, you'd never know how bad she feels, unless you ask, or just happen to catch the grimace on her face in an unguarded moment. She's accomplished far more, under far worse circumstances physically, than I could ever imagine to.
5. My mom has taken wonderful care of her parents. My grandparents moved up to Liberty some years ago to be near her and the family, and she's really looked out for them, to the point that my grandma now lives with my parents. What a wonderful example that is to me of honouring your father and mother.
4.5. My mom is one of the smartest people I know, and she (along with my dad) always encouraged us to think and try to learn. If a word was used at the dinner table which we didn't know, we were encouraged to go look it up and learn how to use it. I have no doubt that my own work in a theological college has been shaped significantly by how my mom cultivated that sense of intellectual curiousity and value on the life of the mind.
4. My mom loves the church. She places a really high value on their local church and makes being there every Sunday a priority, even in the midst of physical pain often. That kind of love for God's people is profoundly biblical and a great example.
3. My mom commits herself to love her kids sacrificially. She had me when she was rather young, and of course, we just kept coming. From the beginning she made it her 'job' to raise us and teach us and spend time with us and be a godly, loving parent. When I see so often my own sinful, selfish heart when I'm with my kids, I marvel all the more how my mom has done it.
2. My mom has shown me how to love your spouse and put their needs before your own and be on the same page and support them and build them up. If I could be a fraction of as good a spouse to Mrs. Thumb Up as my mom has been to my dad, I think my wife will be really blessed.
1. My mom loves Jesus. She follows and trusts God, and that faith shapes everything about her life. Before I had ever heard of Abraham Kuyper, I saw a real-life example of his quote about every square inch of existence belonging to Jesus Christ. She has been willing to love and follow Jesus whatever the cost, and that indeed is the greatest gift a parent can give their children.
Thank you so much, Mom, for all these gifts (and so many more!). Happy Mother's Day.
