Mother’s Day is coming.  This year I surpassed even my own expectations and got a card in the mail to my mom 3 weeks early.  It could be because I was trying to make up for the card being a tad bit late the last few years, but I prefer to think it was because I am just an “on the ball” kind of guy and a great son.  You can feel free to go with that as well.
 
I am fascinated by the number of special days that have populated our cultural calendars - there are so many that we now have a term for many of them -  “Hallmark holidays”.  It’s like card companies invent these things to coerce us to buy their products.  But no one ever refers to Mother’s Day that way.  There are a lot of things that we are willing to disparage, but anything that honors mothers is pretty much never going to make that list.  Growing up in Texas, we were taught at an early age that the verse “honor your father and mother” is applied even more stringently to the mother part.  Of course, it is our mothers that teach us that, but it becomes ingrained in us none the less.
 
Mother’s Day is an interesting mix in my family.  My wife lost her mother to cancer when she was very young, and for many years, Mother’s Day was a reminder of what she had lost.  The sting of that changed when she became a mom herself.  In fact, breakfast in bed before church is now pretty much expected in our home.  But there is still a bittersweet piece to the day.  
 
It was that personal factoid that got me thinking about Mother’s Day this year in light of World Relief Canada.  This last year we have really been talking with people and churches about the concept of “What’s Your Cause?”.  Asking people what it is that they really care about in regards to issues facing our world.  One of the “Causes” that we singled out was “WOMEN”.  Women face a unique set of difficulties in or world – from a lack of education to systematic abuse to repression to being the last to have the opportunity to eat in a household.  For many it goes without saying that WOMEN include mothers and daughters and grandmothers – it is a set of gender issues rather than age issues.
 
That got me thinking about what I was going to do to “celebrate” Mother’s Day this year.  It’s a question that gets bandied about this time of year in a very light manner, but what if we looked at it a little more seriously?  What am I going to do to honor my mother (and my wife – the mother of my child)?  Will it simply be a breakfast in bed morning or a more elaborate Mother’s Day brunch, or should I honor them by doing something for mothers everywhere…specifically mothers who are not celebrated – mothers who are not appreciated but abused, women who are not rewarded for being mothers but penalized for it, women who do not live in a place of honor but die in a place of degradation – simply because they are women.
 
That gave me pause.  That made me think that this year I will do something different.  I will still love on and serve my mother and my wife this Mother’s Day, but I will not forget those who suffer on this day.  My thoughts will be full of love and affection for the moms in my life, but my prayers will be with the moms whose lives are very different.  And my gifts will not only bring smiles to the faces of the moms I love, but they will also bring hope to the many other moms I have never met but also have my love this year.  I will not forego my plans to show my love and affection to my mom and wife, but this year I am adding a place to show the same to the mothers, daughters and grandmothers around the world.  I know the work that World Relief Canada does to make the world a better place for women – from food equity to financial security to gender justice.  The work is good and the effects are profound.  And this year, I am going to tell my mom that I love her and I am going to tell many other moms around the world that they are loved too.  So whether they are called mom, mother, ??,moeder, nana, mutter, madre, mai, majka, mati or momma – they are all worthy of our love and appreciation – no matter whose mother they are.
 
So this year, on Mother’s Day, make sure you hug your mom and tell her you love her (or as my mom always said, “don’t just tell me…show me!”).  But keep the other mothers in your heart and mind too.  One of the things that binds us together as people is that we all have a mom.
 
And if you want to do something for the moms and daughters and grandmothers who might not be getting the same celebration on May 13th, then I invite you to give a gift towards helping them directly.  Click here to go to the World Relief Canada website and make a donation designated towards WOMEN.  
 
Eric Frans, CFRE
Director of Philanthropy