Wednesday 8 May 2019

The gift of Motherhood




The gift of motherhood this Mother’s Day

This Sunday, we will be celebrating Mother’s Day in South Africa. As usual, the commercial world has been advertising ‘Mother’s Day’ specials’ for weeks and families are enticed to buy ‘smellies’ and jewelry to ‘show mom how much you love her’.

Well, let’s forget about all that nonsense and think about what Mother’s Day is really all about.

Mother’s Day is a celebration of ‘Motherhood’. Each time I was pregnant, I would think about my growing baby when I was in the bath. I would wonder what was happening in the hidden world of my womb. While my tummy was still flat, I would think: Is a baby really growing inside there?

After a few months, when my tummy began to swell, this confirmed my pregnancy. From six to nine months, my tummy was like rising dough or an inflating balloon. Then it began to look like an island in the ‘sea’ of my bathwater. As my skin stretched and became tight and shiny, my belly button popped out like the plastic indicator in a cooked turkey. In the last few weeks, before my babies were born, I would feel the hard head just above my pubic bone, and see a tiny foot or knee move across my tummy like a little mouse under a blanket.

And then, the crumpled, wrinkly skin after birth when my precious baby lay in my arms.

The gift of motherhood makes a woman strong and protective, creative, resilient, patient, kind, loving and forgiving.

Motherhood gives a woman a purpose. A mother will sacrifice everything she has for her children. The satisfaction of motherhood comes not only from watching children grow and develop, step by step and stage by stage (without reading a book, they know just what to do). The final reward is watching your children do for your grandchildren what you did for them when they were small.

So, Moms, take time this Mother’s Day to reflect, and thank Creation for the gift of Motherhood. It’s not only about gifts and breakfast in bed – it’s about family, love, togetherness, having fun and enjoying the little things in life.