Hello, God. It's me, Mara.

You know, Lord, yup - Mother's Day is past, but it's been fun listening to several old and young friends share about the mothers of some of their friends. Take G.L.'s mom for instance. She loved having her daughter's friends pop in for an overnight or a weekend.  Seems like she also had a few jobs for them to do while maybe G.L. just watched or went and played the piano while friend 1) ironed, or friend 2) cleaned out a cupboard and washed a day's worth of dishes, or maybe friend 3) ended up having to help mama weed the garden; years later, now, we can chuckle about that!

R.C.'s mom was totally different - she didn't really want any of R.C.'s friends to pop in as really, she wasn't very kind, she wouldn't let R.C.'s friends help set the table or even be in the kitchen nor were they allowed to help to wash the dishes.

C.B.'s mom was a third kind of different; she was honest, pleasant, proud of her girls, loving, kind and giving. She loved to listen to their stories about school, teachers, and friends.

If any of them was a bit upset about anything, she was calm and cheerful, firm about how they might take a different attitude about the subject. Actually, she was an inspiring lady which C.B.'s friends always loved to go along with C.B. to visit mamma! One of the things that C.B.'s mom liked to share was Ecclesiastes 7:5 which says: "Better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool." They probably shared the who for a wise one or a fool, and then they'd laugh and talk about how they could be a better person. A fun time was had.

Dear Lord, we all thank you for the gift of special friends and for dear, loving mothers.

Love Mara