The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked.
The guide said, "Yes, and the way is hard. You will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."
But the young mother was happy, and she could not believe that anything could be better than these years.
So she played with her children, gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams. As the sun shone on them, the young mother cried, "Nothing could ever be lovelier than this."
Then the night came ... and the storm ... and the path became dark. The children shook with fear and cold. The mother drew them close to her and covered them with her mantle.
The children said, "Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near. No harm can come to us."
Then morning came. There was a hill ahead, and the mother and her children climbed it and grew weary. She would frequently tell the children, "Keep your patience because we are almost there."
So the children continued to climb. When they reached the top, they said, "Mother, we would not have done it without you."
When the mother laid down at night, she looked up at the stars and thought, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength."
The next day, strange clouds appeared which darkened the earth ... clouds of war, hate, and evil. As the children groped and stumbled, the mother said, "Look up! Lift your eyes to the light!"
The children looked. They saw above the clouds, an everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness.
That night, the mother said, " This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God."
The days went on, and the weeks, and the months, and the years. The mother grew old and she was little and bent over. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage.
When the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather. At last they came to the top of a hill. They could see a shining road with a golden gate that opened wide.
The mother said, "I have reached the end of my journey. I now know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them."
The children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates."
They stood and watched her as she went on alone. The gates closed after her. The children said, "We cannot see her, but she is still with us. A mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence.
Our mother is always with us. She's the whisper of the leaves as we walk down the street. She's the smell of bleach in our freshly laundered socks. She's the cool hand on our brow when we're not feeling well.
Our Mother lives inside our laughter. She's crystallized in every tear drop we shed.
She's the place we came from ... our first home. She's the map we follow with every step we take.
She's our first love and our first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can separate us from her ... Not time ... not space ... not even death!
This was also recieved in my email and felt it was worth sharing:
If I live in a house of spotless beauty
with everything in its place,
but have not love,
I am a housekeeper ...
not a homemaker.
If I have time for waxing, polishing,
and decorative achievements,
but have not love,
my children learn of cleanliness
... not godliness.
Love leaves the dust
in search of a child's laugh.
Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints
on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears
before it wipes up the spilled milk.
Love picks up the child
before it picks up the toys.
Love is present through the trials.
Love reprimands,
reproves and is responsive.
Love crawls with the baby,
walks with the toddler,
runs with the child,
then stands aside to let
the youth walk into adulthood.
Love is the key
that opens salvation's message
to a child's heart.
Before I became a mother
I took glory in my house of perfection.
Now I glory in God's perfection
of my child.
As a mother,
there is much I must teach my child ...
but the greatest of all is
"LOVE."
~ Jo Ann Merrell ~
I have always liked this small bit of prose. I have no idea who wrote it, but it is very appropriate.
We should try to appreciate every moment with our kids.
We should never wish their childhood away.
One hundred years from now it will not matter
what kind of car you drove,
or what kind of house you lived in,
or how many books you wrote,
or what your clothes looked like;
but the world may be a little better because
"YOU"
were important in the life of a child.
If you are looking for ways to deal with stress, (and who of us isn't?) please click on my page called "52 Ways to Deal With Stress."
I have also compiled a page about household hints. These are things gathered from the net and I invite you to send in your own hints so I may add them to the list.
The Quote pages are always here for you to read and enjoy, too. If you have any inspiring quotes you'd like added, feel free to send them in.
I am also reviving the Happiness page. Please send in what makes you happy and I will incorporate it into a future zine.
I am trying to lose weight and have found some very supportive sites on the net, along with some recipes sites. Feel free to check out what I have compiled about weight issues here.
Another interesting page I put together is about energy and how we can boost it in ourselves.
