These posts are usually long and longer so I am hopeful that this one will be quick and to the point.  Oftentimes on Mother’s Day, grown children are thankful to mom for providing so much of the ‘things’ that they WANTED growing up.  As I’ve thought through the wording of that phrase, my wife really can’t provide many of the ‘things’ the children want.  You see, she labors IN the home.  The pay is bad, the work is menial and I mean menial – folding clothes, doing laundry, changing pull-ups that aren’t able to hold THAT much, fixing sandwiches, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, straightening, putting kids down for a nap, getting dinner together, running to school for a meeting, teaching Jake, Grace, Elijah and Ryle – bandaging scraped knees, writing a quick note to encourage a sister in Christ, bearing patiently with her grandfather who comes over everyday, disciplining, bringing the children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord and then, I get home.  By no means is that an exhaustive list (there’s seven children for crying out loud! ;-)).  Just a few things off the top of my head.

Back to my point.  She can’t provide many of the things that the children want.  But because she is laboring in the home, she CAN provide those things that our children most NEED.  Which is a mom who oversees their care, their discipline, their instruction and gives them not leftovers after a long day off somewhere else – but the ‘first fruits’ of her labor.

To my dear wife and mother of our children, “Many daughers have done well, but you excel them all.” (Prov 31:29).