My Joyful Noise

I tell my students that when they take a class from me they aren’t getting another professor, they are getting another mother. I always wanted a dozen children but the Lord only sent me ten so I tend to think of my students more as the children I didn’t get than as students. (I know, I’m crazy!) The maternal instincts in me are very strong. I think my own children push me away a little because of that. I tend to smother if I don’t watch myself and back off a little.

For some reason, today I am especially full of love for my students. I realize that I always get more attached to them than they do to me. They leave class and forget all about me, but I remember them, pray for them, think about them, worry about them, and hope they are doing what is right. I don’t always remember their names (as a matter of fact, I seldom can after they leave class) but I remember their faces and that they were once “mine.” 

So today I am celebrating motherhood in all its forms. I’m celebrating the incredible ten children the Lord sent to my home to nurture through childhood and the eight who are now mothers themselves. I’m celebrating the wonderful woman who married my son and mothers his children. I’m celebrating the hundreds of students he’s allowed me to nurture a little in the classroom. I’m celebrating all you other mothers whether you have biological children or whether you mother and nurture everyone around you or whether you do both. I’m grateful for my own mother and for my sister who is an amazing mother. I’m grateful for you all because mothers make the world a better place to live!

In short, today my joy is overflowing for all mothers everywhere!


(Picture: I fell in love with this picture, but couldn't find the artist or the original source for it, but the site I found it on is  http://kethry.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/mothering-sunday/mother-child/)