7 Ways To Love Your Mother

7 Ways to Love Your Mother

John 19:26-27

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Mary witnessed the crucifixion from the foot of the cross. Can you even imagine how she must’ve felt?

Jesus turns to John and says, take care of her, and looks at his mother and says, let him stand in my place as your son. John lived a very long life, and I believe he took care of Mary until she went to heaven.

Jesus is on the cross, bearing the weight of the sins of the whole world on His shoulders, yet He sees to it to make sure His mother is taken care of after He is gone! As God, Jesus is dealing w/ eternal matters, but as a man, He’s showing all of us today how important it is to take care and love our mothers!

You cannot be willfully wrong with your mother and be right with God. If your mother is still alive, regardless of your and her ages, you can love her in these 7 ways:

1. Love her verbally.

Esp. men have the philosophy—I don’t have to say I love you, you already know it. I have told you before, if I change my mind I’ll let you know! Or, I SHOW love, not just say it…and that may be true, but a woman needs to hear those words, “I Love You!”

Children need to hear it…and saying it makes you more of a man, not less! And spouses need to hear it too…

DEAR ABBY: I enlisted shortly after Pearl Harbor. Thirty-six days later, I was on my way to the Philippines. En route, the Philippines fell to the Japanese, and we were routed to Australia. Eleven days after we landed, I met the most beautiful girl in the world.

On our first date, I told her I was going to marry her. I did, 18 months later, while on a 10-day R-and-R leave from New Guinea.

After more than 57 years of marriage and two children, my beloved "Mary" died five days before Christmas. Although we agreed that our ashes were to be scattered over the mountains, I found I could not part with hers.

While Mary was alive, she would frequently say, "You don’t know how much I love you." I’d reply, "Likewise." I never said, "I love you." Now her ashes are on my dresser, where I tell her several times a day how much I love her, but it’s too late. Although I wrote poetry to her, I could not bring myself to say the three words I knew she wanted most to hear.

As my dearest was dying and we thought she was comatose, I told her, "There aren’t enough words to tell you how much I love you." A few hours later, she whispered, "Not enough words" and died.

The reason I’m writing is to urge men to express their feelings while their loved ones are alive. I don’t know why, but many men are reluctant to express the depth of their feelings. -- MISSING MARY IN COLORADO

Our spouses need to hear it, our children…our mothers also!

Some men would say, I’m just not turned that way…then turn around! “I’m just not comfortable”…then be uncomfortable!

Verbally…

2. Love her physically.

When’s the last time you gave her a big hug w/ out her asking for it…or a kiss on the cheek, or a neck rub, or just sat on the couch and held her for a change?

She’s the first person who ever touched you…she wrapped you up in her womb for months, and you came out and first priority was to hold you, and she cuddled you, stroked your head, rubbed your feet, held your little cheeks against her, gave you a finger to grasp…in love she did all these things, including grooming you w/ a licked thumb!

When you were little she could say, “give me sugar”, and you’d pucker up and she’d accept your wet, sloppy kiss and even say thank you! You give her bear hugs so tight she didn’t have to hold on to you…you’d just cling to her as she walked around!

She changed your diapers, potty trained you, and held the Kleenex for you to blow your nose! She wiped food off of your face years longer than she should have had to!

She constantly touched you! And she may have to hand you off to another, and her life may endure some heavy changes, but she deserves your touch and should never have to give that up completely!

It would mean more to her than flowers or candy, or eating out, or a diamond necklace [well, let’s not go too far!]

I had to tell my wife the other day about several other ladies pawing at me. I had just come from a visit at the nursing home!…I’ve spent countless hours in those places and when this ruddy, Opie faced kid walks in there’s not a single instance in which some of those precious old ladies don’t try to reach out and touch me, a total stranger! You can tell, she’s starved for that simple, innocent brand of physical love.