I found this at the funcheaporfree.com blog and loved it - I love how some people can put things into words. The link to it is at the bottom. I shortened it and put in the parts that I really liked.
"Mother's day is a pretty big deal, I guess. It's a top day for flower sales, and the #1 day in the year for phone minutes used. If you're a mom people say "Happy Mother's Day" and send you a card, or give you a flower in church.
"Mother's day is a pretty big deal, I guess. It's a top day for flower sales, and the #1 day in the year for phone minutes used. If you're a mom people say "Happy Mother's Day" and send you a card, or give you a flower in church.
But why is Mother's Day a big deal REALLY?
I tend to down-play mother's day
because I don't want my husband to feel pressure to make it this amazing,
profound, and expensive day. I would tell him to "lighten up!" when
he fusses that I'm not sleeping in long enough, shouldn't be helping with the
dishes, or need to take a long bath.
Why?
I'm not sure exactly. I think deep down
the reason I get a little embarrassed about all the fuss for Mother's day is
because I think...
"I don't know what all the fuss is about...I'm just a
mom."
But then I
stop.
I look around
my house.
I look into the
faces of my children and think...
What exactly DOES it mean to be a mom?
Because I know plenty of people who
were born by a "mom", yet have no mother figure in their life. And
again, I know plenty of moms who have never given birth at all, yet are some of
the best moms on the planet. So what does it mean to be a mom?
In today's trends and pop culture
motherhood has been diluted. To be a stay-at-home mom is squashing your
potential. To teach your kids in the home is unnecessary and socially damaging.
To be gentle, nurturing, plain, frugal, happy, sweet, dedicated, and a
full-time, no-holds-barred MOM is...
...well...uncool.
Being just a mom is boring,
unfulfilling, plain, and full of a lot of downers.
Sleepless nights. Mom jeans. Heartburn
and 9 months of agony. Messes and spit up. Diapers. Diapers. and more diapers.
Why would anyone do that to themselves?
Subject themselves to such a boring life-sentence? Give up so much?
Why would anyone want to be...just a mom?
Because, to me, being just a mom is about...more.
More than
changing thousands of diapers.
It's about
more than cooking endless meals that no one seems to want to eat.
It's about
more than pinching those annoying pennies!
It's about
more than baths at the end of an exhausting day where I end up wetter than my
kids.
It's about
more than sacrificing a 6-pack stomach.
It's about the absolute miracle of
growing a human from my own able core. About appreciating the cramps, kicks,
and heartburn because it reminds me that I am a walking tool of God who has
entrusted in me the responsibility of carrying and protecting a growing and
blooming precious baby. It's about being grateful that I am blessed enough to
get pregnant at all.
It's about
more than having to stay home and sacrificing a career.
It's about wanting to stay home.
It's about selling, giving up, and living without whatever it takes to be home.
To be the one to spend time with, nurture, and teach my children like no one
else can. About setting aside the things of the world for a few short years so
that I can be apart of something bigger than myself that I CAN take with me
when all is said and done.
It's about
more than messy faces and sticky hands.
It's about
more than not having much "me" time.
It's about sacrificing little bits of
myself NOW in order to build a better future for myself, my family, and my
world FOREVER. It's about being selfless and doing what I was put on this earth
to do, 110%. It's about teaching my children that the world could use a little
more selflessness, and that great things come from focusing on something other
than yourself once in a while. It's about taking time to focus on
"me" whenever possible, but learning to respect the beauty of service
to others.
It's about
more than lacking sleep.
It's about
more than waiting out yet another epic toddler tantrum.
It's about teaching patience, humility,
and delayed gratification to these precious beings who happened to be born into
a world where everyone feels entitled and feels they deserve what they want,
when they want it, how they want it. It's about learning that we don't always
get what we want...and that it's ok.
It's about
more than - literally - endless loads of laundry.
It's about
more than exhausting effort to try to raise my kids right.
It's about teaching someone about
someone greater than themselves. About presenting the world with one less
eating disorder, gang member, or promiscuous teen who is on the constant
search to belong. It's about instilling self-confidence and respect for
themselves and for a higher power that will be contagious and inspire those
around them.
It's about
more than passing on my last name and crossing "have kids" off the
live to-do list.
It's about the endless, indescribable,
unmatched joy and love that I feel for my kids. How every day, even years after
their birth, I stare in awe at my little warriors and can't imagine how I could
love anything so much. How I've never wanted to sacrifice so much for someone
before. Do so much for someone. Be so much for someone. Feel so much pure,
unbridled love from someone. It's about the "I love you
mommy"'s and the sloppy kisses, and how those are the highlight of my
week. About how I start to physically cry just thinking about the possibility
of ever losing them. How having children has brought my husband and I closer
than ever before; how united toward a common cause we are. How madly in love we
are. How there has been nothing, is nothing, and will never be anything else in
my life that could ever bring me such absolute...joy. It's about believing that being a mom is what I was put on this
earth to do, and that there is nothing NOTHING matters more.
So I don't know
about you, but I can't think of a single job, position, degree, award, or
responsibility in the world that allows me to make more of an impact of
importance...
or gives you
greater return on your investment.
So, yes. I
guess you could say that I'm just a mom.
And you know...
I'm kind of a big deal."
I'm kind of a big deal."
