“Mom, I love you!”

Our Mom turns 93 tomorrow, 6/26.

Mom has been the sweetest model and influence of love and grace in my life and the life of my other five brothers and sisters.

I have told people for years “Don’t even try to out-sentimentalize me over my Mom!” But it isn’t just sentimentalism, it’s genuine, passionate, heart-felt and heart-held love for her. And it’s gratitude to God for ordaining that she would give me birth and be my Mother.

I often tell her, “Mom, you didn’t just give me life – but you have given me your life. You have lived your whole, entire life for me and for all of us, your children!” Our Mom has sacrificed and given the last 74 years of her life for us since the birth of my older brother inducted her into Motherhood. Mom was always there – and still is – teaching us, training us, instructing us to love God and others, showing by her own example how to be gracious and forgiving, insisting that we use our manners and be respectful, requiring that we be responsible to our word and commitments, stand by and stick with each other through thick and thin, and most of all, praying for us by name to this day that God would make it work in us.

So, Mom, “I love you!” never seems to be enough, but sometimes it’s the best and most I can say. “Mom, I love you!”