Thirty Pieces of My Thirty Years #9: Mom

Selflessness is always taking the smallest helping so that others can have the choicest pieces.

Selflessness is praying and fasting for your children and for their spouses.

Selflessness is thirty plus years of baseball, football, volleyball, soccer, and basketball games.

Selflessness is waiting up until midnight to make sure everyone makes it home safely.

Selflessness is caring for your aging father, counting pills, paying bills, loving even when it's hard.

Selflessness is allowing your introverted husband to have peace and quiet, even when you'd rather talk to him.

Selflessness is helping to paint my kitchen ceiling.

Selflessness is caring for the thousands of patients who haven't been able to care for themselves.

Selflessness is dying to your own preferences about weddings and joyfully serving your children to help make their vision reality.

Selflessness is dropping everything when one of your children calls.

Selflessness is rejoicing when they rejoice and weeping when they weep.

Selflessness is thousands of diapers changed, meals cooked, boo-boos tended, toilets cleaned, cards written, piles of laundry folded, pants hemmed, and phone calls made.

Selflessness is my mom.

Happy Birthday Mom! I'm so grateful to have had these past 30 years with you and to have seen God's grace so richly displayed in your life. I hope that one day, when I have children of my own, I will be able to follow your example.