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The First Woman you Love

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" Proverbs 31:30
She's the first woman who probably ever kissed you and hugged you. Probably the first woman to tell you that she loved you. She probably was the first woman to see you naked.
Get your minds out of the gutter - I am talking about mothers. For a vast majority of us, your mother is the first woman, if not person you come to love. I am sure the feeling is the same for your adoptive mothers if you were adopted. You come to know her voice.
Your mother is the first person you truly bond with, not just in the obvious physical sense. You start out life spending most of it with your mother. She is the first person you feel a sense of security and comfort with, long before other people. Hopefully, over the years that bond has only strengthened.
This isn't to say mothers are perfect or that they don't make mistakes. I know of people who have strained or broken relationships with their mothers. But, I cant think of a more important human relationship than the first one you have. Depending on that relationship, it can serve as the foundation to one's physical, emotional, and spiritual relationships which last long into adulthood. Fathers are important too, but today I want to talk about moms.
Mothers can teach lessons about love, relationships, trust, discipline, grace, mercy, and forgiveness in both positive and negative ways. In how to handle things or not handle them well.
I like to think that I have a very strong relationship with my mother. My mom stayed home early on to raise the kids while my dad worked. I know she didn't learn to drive until after I was born. Sadly, my first real memory of my mom was when I got out of a moving car at Gold Circle that she was driving. This resulted in a broken leg at 4 years old. My poor mother was in a panic and took me home because I didn't want to go anywhere else and was screaming. She survived that incident.
She is to blame for my love of comics, though I think I would have eventually discovered them on my own. She bought me Amazing Spider-Man 135 when she took me to her job setting up greeting cards. This was back in the day when you could buy 3 comics for a dollar and still have change. So, 18,000 comics later, you know who gets the blame.
Me mom was the one that got me started going to church. From the time I was baptized at 7, she made sure we went to church weekly - even the longer communion services. She put up with two kids who wanted to be anywhere other than there on a weekly basis. But, she felt it important to raise her kids with a little exposure to religion. She taught Sunday School for many years at our church - 2nd grade to be exact. She helped lay the foundation for my church-going ways.
How important is she to our family? Let me give you a short story. When my mom went into surgery and it was discovered she had cancer, my dad was told by the surgeon. When he turned around to tell me, he had tears in his eyes. Anyone who knows my dad knows that happens rarely. That simple act on his part on his part confirmed what I already believed in how much he loved her. He then told me to go home immediately after that. That's my dad for you. I went home (you always listen to your dad) and listened to Paul Simon's "She loves me like a rock"
She went through months of chemo without as many problems as was expected. She soldiered on like a real trooper throughout. During that time, I decided to get my hair shaved down - but don't tell her it was for her. ;) Luckily, after all the treatments, she was given a clean bill of health. Praise God.
That's what moms do, don't they? Always taking care of us no matter how they are feeling - usually without complaint or thanks. They teach us a lot about sacrificial love and really love in general from the day we are born. They cooked and cleaned - made sure we were dressed properly and kissed away our pain. That doesn't change much as we get older. They're always there for us, even if they are no longer physically with us.
My mother is still someone who I rely on for wisdom and a listening ear. And, she still worries about me. Just listen to that Paul Simon song - it totally explains what a mother's love is. It's what mothers do.

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