Whose love is wider than an ocean and deeper than the sea? A mother’s love is the answer to most any question about sacrificial love. The month of May brings thoughts of flowers, sunshine, going barefoot, and mothers. Memories of my mother flood my heart. She watches from heaven as I grow older and time teaches the truth of her lessons and love. A book I bought for my two sisters and me twenty years ago, stares from a top shelf, “The Older I Get—The More Like My Mother I Am!” Through the years, we gasped and grumbled, loved and loathed, fumed and fretted, but mostly adored and admired the things our mama did while raising four children, working at school and our country store, keeping the family going, helping neighbors, doing church work, and the list goes on. Surely, you’re remembering your mother too; one look in our hearts and mirrors reflects the woman who gave us life and love Giving honor to our mothers is something we should do daily, not just on Mother’s Day. Last week, I visited my parent’s gravesite and placed a bouquet of spring flowers near their headstone. I kneeled to arrange the flowers perfectly and to pray. Flashbacks of going to my grandparents’ graves, with mama faithfully changing flowers each season, reminded me of how she was always teaching lessons of love. On one of those visits, she hinted how she hoped we would keep pretty flowers on her and daddy’s graves. I remembered thinking they would be here forever, but time slipped away and so did my mother and daddy. Cherish the times you have with those you love. Do you remember Mother’s Day church services, wearing a red rose if your mother was here, a white one if she was in heaven? Honor your dear mother with your gift of flowers this Mother’s Day. Send them FTD, hand deliver them to her grave, or take them to her in person and make her feel like ‘queen for a day’… because she is.

Searching for the right words to share how deep and wide is a mother’s love came while fumbling through written treasures tucked inside a huge hat box. An old newspaper caught my attention for a reason. The 1996 insert, “A Farewell to Erma” sent me to days gone by, when reading Erma’s column inspired and entertained mother and me. Erma Bombeck’s humorous and heartwarming stories about motherhood always hit home … sometimes hard! One of her favorite columns dealt with showing children how much their parents loved them when they said, “no.” I share Erma’s words of wisdom as we celebrate the love of our mothers this Mother’s Day.

“You don’t love me! How many times have your kids laid that one on you? And how many times have you, as a parent, resisted the urge to tell them how much? Someday, when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a mother, I’ll tell them.

I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going, with whom, and what time you would get home. I loved you enough to insist you buy a bike with your own money that you could afford. I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover your friend was a creep. I loved you enough to make you retrun a Milky Way with a bite out of it to the drugstore and confess, “I stole this.”

I loved you enough to stand over your for two hours while you cleaned your bedroom, a job that would have taken me 15 minutes I loved you enough to say, “Yes, you can go to Disney World on Mother’s Day.”

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, disgust, and tears in my eyes. I loved you enough not to make excuses for your lack of respect or your bad manners. I loved you enough to admit that I was wrong and ask for your forgiveness. I loved you enough to ignore what every other mother did or said. I loved you enough to let you stumble, fall, hurt and fail. I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your own actions at age 6, 10, or 16. I loved you enough to figure you would lie about the party being chaperoned, but forgave you for it — after discovering I was right. I loved you enough to accept you for what you are, not what I wanted you to be. But most of all, I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it. That was the hardest part of all.”

Being a mother is ‘loving enough’ to do the things Erma wrote about and more! All mothers reading my column today are remembering and reassuring themselves … I did … I do love my children enough! Memories of my mother and of being a mother are treasures that grow greater and grander as my hair grays and my wrinkles give proof that motherhood takes its toll. As Paul said, ‘whatever is lovely, think on these things.” Thinking about my mother, my husband’s mother, mother figures in my life now, and being a mother is lovely. Loving and honoring our mothers and fathers is one of God’s commandments. He understands the unconditional love and sacrifice, the heartaches and happiness of having children. Do we love Him enough? When we think of our relationship with our Father, are our thoughts lovely? He loved us enough to give His Son … so that we might have life everlasting.

I fold the paper with Erma’s words of wisdom, words that teach and touch eternity. She taught children to honor and humble themselves to the mother and father God gave them. She had words for parents as well, sharing how we should put time with our children before mopping and dusting, emailing and face book, busying ourselves with going and doing. Those things will wait but the children won’t!

What are you waiting for? Spend time with your mother, your children, renew relationships with your family and your Father who loves you so. Things of this world will pass away, a mother’s love and life eternal will live forever and ever! Such love really is wider than the ocean and deeper than the sea. Amen.