HopeFul Reflections

Happy mother’s day everyone. A blog of my personal reflections nor my life could be done without this woman. I know my last post was about my childhood hero, but the one who inspired me to become the man I am today is my mom. Very clearly I remember hating my childhood and myself. I was weak, I was bullied often, and I hated feeling so alone and misunderstood. However, I remember many nights when my mother would sit me down at our little dining room table and tell me how great I would become one day. There was no reason at all for me to believe I would ever become anything, especially with how many people in my daily life told me I was useless. My mother said to me in her second language, with even greater confidence than you would say the sky is blue, that I would become something great.

She grew up poor in India. From what she told me she had very loving parents and was very close to her siblings. She told me ow hard she struggled to make something of herself because she wanted more for herself and her family. She didn’t have any grand dreams of conquering the world, becoming a CEO, or leaving behind some legacy. She simply wanted better for herself and her family. By her own admission she wasn’t naturally clever, but she could really work. and work she did. She’s been a nurse for over three decades. She lost her father young. This was an incredible strain for a poor family that made it’s money by farming as my grandmother was fairly small herself and the other men in the family had left to start their own families. However, my mother persisted and forged a path for life. She found a way to become a nurse by agreeing to work for a while to pay her tuition fees and eventually found her way to America.

What I admire the most about her is her work ethic, her strength, and her faith. She doesn’t slow down and she rarely complains. She’s tough and where I get my attitude in the face of difficulty. She’s where I get the confidence to believe in myself when I feel pushed to a corner. No matter what I was in life or how I treated her, she always loved me. She always loves me unconditionally, but her respect is earned and I love that about her. She knew when to be nurturing and when to be tough. She’s always been my biggest supporter and a fantastic critic. When I used to get bullied in school, my mother standing at 5’2″ was ready to take on the entire administration for me with my dad having to hold her back.

The greatest thing she showed me was her faith. I know that naturally I am smarter than my mother, but despite that I am no where near as strong in faith as my mother. She truly does believe with all her heart and it has given her everything she has needed. She has faced hardship after hardship, but she has faced them all beautifully. Unfortunately, I used to be the first to ridicule how someone lived and when I was like that I still could not fault my mother for the way she lived. She lives well. This is all due to her faith and how she moves in her faith. She prays over everything and much more than that she moves and acts like a Christian woman. She doesn’t just pray for things, she makes things happen. She doesn’t just face struggle, she has faith through it. She was my first teacher in the faith and I am truly grateful to have such a teacher.

I’ve had to type slowly because if I type too fast the tears start to flow. She is still alive by the Grace of God, but I just really love her. She’s been my hero, my best friend, and my teacher. God has truly blessed me in giving me a mom like her. Of course she has her faults too, but she knows how to joke about them. I wish you all a great Mother’s day and thank you for listening to me talk about mine.

-JKG