For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal live. John 3:16 (NIV)

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Among my mother's many pearls of wisdom is the belief that one should never say what one thinks when under the influence of a powerful emotion like anger, annoyance or frustration. How many regrets have been born from of a 'loose' tongue? That prayer and daily devotions are a necessity for daily living and kindness to strangers, although accepted by society as the proper thing to do, should also be applied to one's family members. How often are we kind and understanding of a sister, brother or parents' feelings or a situation they are experiencing? People seem to take the attitude that because they are mere 'family' members that the social rules of kindness should not apply to them. This encompasses respect, loyalty and consideration for them as well. Do onto others as they do onto you is against my mother's principles as she ultimately believes that as others will go out of their way to hurt or injure us in some wrongdoing, still, two wrongs do not a right make. When you think of your mother, what comes to mind?

Women, by our very natures are patient, understanding and self-sacrificing. Qualities that can be made more difficult by the individual circumstances in our lives, like a difficult husband or a problem child. How she handled these situations on a daily life-long bases has provided many a lesson for me when I was married to my wonderful husband. "That's not what you do." I hear her voice in my head in response to certain situations that arise where I would handle it differently than she would. I have learned much from her quiet strength of character and her religious beliefs. It is a fact that whether we realize it or not, we have an invisible role model in our lives and we use him or her as our unconscious guides. This person can be anyone in whom we esteem and can be a mixture of the qualities of more than one person. I have two. My mother and my sister-in-law. My husband's sister and her husband are renowned for their generosity, to family and strangers. Her house is a veritable revolving door, as one relation moves out someone who needs a place to stay or a babysitter for awhile moves in. Their house is never empty and the term 'empty nest' will never exist in their lives, much less apply to them. I have a great admiration for both her generosity and fortitude.

From my mother, I get forbearance, patience, religious teaching and inner strength and the wisdom of learning when to speak and when to hold my tongue; albeit a difficult task at times. My words tend to be more guided by what she would say... I hope that I have some of their qualities and some of my own to add as an example to the next generation. It takes time to learn and once learned, more time to continue to cultivate and develop such ideals to the point that they play meaningful roles on our lives. As an epitaph, what would I wish to have written on my stone when my time comes? The recent death of a friend brought this comment from another friend, "Its too bad there won't be many sad people at her funeral." She was a difficult person to begin with and had little kindness to offer anyone in her radius so her passing, although sad, will not elicit too much feeling of regret.

Since this is not how most of us want to be remembered it might behoove us all to take lessons from our forebearers and take a second, if not a third look at what our elders have to offer by way of life teachings and maybe that is the key to choosing to be a better person in this life. To be better is to strive to develop a moral character that will take a lifetime to learn and grow into but when the end comes, I would hope that people would reflect on my qualities and remember in what ways that I was my mother's daughter from what I chose to learn from her.

How much are you your mother daughter? When you think of her, what comes to mind? I offer this as a tribute to the women who take the title of 'Mother' and who hold that banner high.

I will continue to write completely original articles in my leisure time about my interests and subjects that I believe my readers would be interested in and this year I have an ambitious campaign to write more quality articles, take some writing programs and try my hand at a short story. Wish me Luck!

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