How can you or I choose just one? I do remember an especially delightful day my mother made extra special for me. It was the beginning of summer. I grew up in Miami in the 50 s and 60 s. It was a very special, sunny, and beautiful place to live! I was graduating from elementary school and going into Jr. High. My mother planned for us to walk quite a ways to the neighborhood 5 & 10 cent store, as they were called. I remember thinking I might be too old to hold her hand, but I did it anyway! She wanted to buy and help me make a scrapbook of my elementary school days or whatever I chose! She saw I was a keeper of memorabilia. I now have all kinds of scrapbooks, made one of my memories of Mother. I would put it out in my home every year on the month she went to be with the Lord, to honor her life and to tell her story. 

Like most women of her day, she was a homemaker. She taught me by example as she  watched over the affairs of her household.  She  loved her husband and her children,  she was  busy at home, kind, subject to her husband.  These are phrases that I later learned to love from the Bible. She taught me that hard work could be fun, as we did homemaking chores like picking up, dusting, cleaning, cooking, sewing and so much more. She would sing hymns loud and out of tune, as we worked together. 

The singing of hymns was probably a carryover from her childhood. I am thankful for a really good childhood and knew I was loved, but the Bible was not emphasized. There was a Bible in a drawer of a living room end table, but it was seldom taken out of the drawer or read. We were as I learned to call us, Easter and Christmas Church-Goers! When I became a mother, Henry and I were already not just Church-Goers, we were dedicated Christians, who both with all our hearts wanted to teach our girls what that meant. We wanted them to experience what we realized we had not had. 

My most favorite verse is Proverbs 31:30, that emphasizes,  ... a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised,  honored or blessed. I wanted to be like the Proverbs 31 woman and I wanted my girls to pattern after her, too! One of my most cherished memories is of my first born daughter, Tricia, making this statement about me,  Some children have memories of coming

home to the smell of cookies baking in the oven, which made them happy. But I often came home to the smell of Clorox and that made me happy, because I appreciated that my mom had been cleaning and that my home was clean and orderly!" So, what memories do you have of your mother? What memories do your children have or will have of you as a mother, if you are one? This verse comes to mind for this paragraph,  Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it, Proverbs 22:6.

The family I was born into included my father, Paul, and my mother, Naomi. I had an older brother, Paul, Jr., and my younger or little brother, Mickey. We were blessed growing up with each other, a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins. We did get together often, and we had many family dinners around the family table. We tried our best to expose our daughters to their relatives or extended family, as often as possible. Writing about family, I want to mention a couple lines from our Pastor Cody's book we are studying in our small groups now.  In the world, people say 'blood is thicker than water.  But in the Church, we are bonded by the blood of the Lamb - a deeper, eternal connection." 

Church Family is really important. We didn't grow up with one. I am thankful to God for the godly people my daughters were exposed to in our church. Recently, while getting ready for church, Henry and I were listening to a pastor on television. He was talking about the family table. He mentioned all kinds of important things happen around the family table like devotion time, Bible Studies, important meetings or talks, and family dinners! As I mentioned above, we will enjoy family dinners at Pammy's home, in Pittsburg soon! One will be extra special, in that we will gather around her family table, on Mother s Day, for a family dinner. 

Our daughter, Tricia, here in Miami, hosts family dinners all the time around a very busy family table. Henry and I both had family dinners in our childhood homes and we had them and still do in ours, too. Often we included Church Family, again we still do. Family dinners are important around the well used family table! Often on special occasions or holidays, we finish them with a devotional Henry reads. Pammy and her family recently mentioned in honor of me, things that remind them of me and that they will probably remember about me, some things included on a list were - FamiIy Dinners/ Special Dinners, Yummy Food and Specific Foods they like ! A Clean House and a Spotless House/ were on the list. Pammy, once said upon coming home for a visit, "I always enjoy coming home where all is welcoming, ready for me and to a 'Pristine House!'  I remember my mama, teaching me how to clean a house, to cook a meal, how to set a beautiful table, with place cards, her showing hospitality/ all part of my training in my childhood home. 

I am so thankful for that training. What comes to your mind when you think of the family you were born into? What kind of family memories will the child or the family God gave you have of happy family times? What memories do you have of your church family being in your childhood home? I have none! Let's make some for our children and/or our grandchildren! Bible verses that come to mind about the blessings of family are, '...children are a reward from the Lord,  Psalms 127:3 and Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children Remembering the blessings of church, I want to write about this church, Southwest Community Church.

Henry and I found it through a tract one year after we were married, so about June of 1972. We were both believers, but neither one of us had very much biblical knowledge, at all. We loved the church from the first time we heard Pastor Miller preach. We were like sponges. We wanted to soak in every word written in the Bible. We bought the recommended New Scofield Reference, Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version, and our faith story began. There is so much I could write about our church, the way it was back then/ the impact it had on our lives and how the impact continues!

The church began in 1969, so it was only three years old, when the Lord led us to it. We have worshiped and served in it going on 54 years! We fell in love with the Millers, who invited us to their home for lunch after church the second or third time we attended! Pastor Miller took Henry under his wing and mentored him. Mrs. Miller became a role model for me. I remember saying,  "I wanted to be exactly like her!" I learned so very much from her and her example as a godly woman, wife and mother. She was certainly a spiritual mother to manY young women. Though I was very blessed by my own mother, the spiritual training was not there. What is your story about church, better yet, about God? What stories will your child or

children have about God and His Church? 

I am writing about my childhood home now. I am thankful that most of my memories are happy. Some of my happiest memories are that my parents were friendly and that our home was frequently full of family, friends, and neighbors. Neighbors became friends! They both loved fun. I remember trying to think of one word that best describes my childhood and that word I decided was  fun.  They  practiced hospitality!" We used every holiday, every birthday, any excuse to have a party ! They were mostly pool parties, in the pool dug by my older brother and his friends and built, mostly by my dad and his friends. Yes, they  practiced hospitality" another Biblical phrase, but remember I told you there wasn't much of a Biblical emphasis at all, so you can imagine that things were not always fun or happy! 

The home Henry and I live in now was dedicated to the Lord by Pastor Miller, the first pastor of SWCC. We made it a party, a Home Dedication Day Party! We loved the Lord in it, read our Bibles in it, prayed in it, and brought two daughters home to it, when they were born. We read and taught them the Bible, prayed for and with them. We practiced hospitality, had Bible Studies, and we home schooled in it. They both also went to KCS, in the early years of their education. However, today both of our daughters home school in their homes. It just becomes part of your story that you do a lot of things the way your parents did! We have done many things in the home He gave us and the Lord has blessed our home and our girl's homes, with lots of happiness and still does. I am so thankful for His blessings concerning home ! Mother has a lot to do with the atmosphere of the home and memories made in it! What are some of the happy memories of your childhood home? What memories are you trying to make for the child or children in your home? A verse that comes to mind is,  ...But as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord," Joshua 24:15 or another great one is,  " Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." 

We have heard many Mother's Day sermons at SWCC. In the past, mothers were usually dressed in their "Sunday Best  and many had been given a fancy orchid corsage ! We have been reminded over the years that not all women are mothers, for many various reasons, maybe your childhood was less than good, maybe some memories of Mother and Mother s Day are painful. We all identify in some way with Mother s Day. We all had a mother, our story starts with her, but everyone has a different story. When my older brother died, I gave a talk about the positive, blessed times I could remember about our story. Because sin came into the world and we are all sinners, not all memories in our stories are positive. A song came into my mind then and the lyrics apply here, too.  Memories may be beautiful and yet, but what s too painful to remember, we just soon forget, but it is the laughter we will remember, whenever we remember the way we were.  When sin, ours or others, come to mind, when sad or bad things happen, a verse we can claim is, Romans 8:28,  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes." 

Let us close, with these lyrics from one of the best loved hymns. This one is Henry's favorite and I just have to write, of course, fathers are important, too! We'll be celebrating Father's Day before we can blink!  Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine ! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.  When we have assurance that we have been born of His Spirit, and washed in His blood, our hope is in His story! We can and should celebrate Him every day! Let's enjoy celebrating Mother's Day in church and maybe go home and have a family dinner! Let us claim this verse together, Psalm 78:4,  we will tell the next generation the praise worthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders He has done."

Happy Mother's Day to you and your family!