By Dawn Smiling

  

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb."

Psalms 139:13 NIV

 As my sister’s and I circled around my mother’s bed, I still believed my mother would live forever.  She could never leave us.  I planned for my mother to live to at least 150 years old. After a long day, I would call her to bounce off my ideas and get her stamp of approval. But as I saw her in the hospital bed, I knew life was changing in a way that I felt I was ill prepared for.  I knew my sister’s and I would never be the same, and I was right! A holistic legacy is when one is genuinely determined to offer yourself by making a meaningful, lasting energizing contribution to humanly serving a cause greater than your own.  Mothers leave a legacy that stretches all dimensions and spans the beginning of time. Eve, in the book of Genesis, never had a mother.  She taught us that God loves us through our mistakes.  Hagar wandered in the wilderness, wept for her child, and God responded to the cry of her heart by revealing a well of water nearby to quench the thirst of her and her child (Genesis 21:16, 19).  Jocebed defied Pharaoh in order to save the life of her son (Exodus 2:1-8).  The mother who appealed to Solomon was willing to let another woman enjoy her son rather than see the child murdered (I Kings 3:26).   Hannah was devoted to her son, yet willingly offered him to the Lord (I Samuel 1:27, 28). We can’t forget the mothers who didn’t make good choices, and yet left a legacy that we can learn from.  Athaliah, the idolatrous mother of King Ahaziah, guided her son into devotion to evil (2 Kings 8:26, 27).  Lot’s wife took her eyes off of her children; and in an instance, turned into a pillar of salt (Luke 17:31-33).  Rebekah caused dissension between two brothers, Jacob and Esau, over a birthright (Genesis 27:6, 7). Each one of these women left something behind that we cheer or cry over.  God has a plan for mothers, and each one of these women left an example of life that we can learn from. As we stood around my mother’s bed, she had the strangest smile on her face.  I realize now that she felt complete.  She could go home to be with the Lord knowing that everything she poured into us would live long after she was gone.  Mom saw us not as we were in that moment, but as she always dreamed we would be in the future. A mother lives her life preparing her children to one day live without her.  I am thankful to be a part of her legacy.  I understand that she followed her mother, and I am following her.  I pray I leave a greater legacy for my children, and those whom God has given me influence to nurture. Happy Mother’s Day!!