The scene is still etched into my memory.  The room was huge, at least in the eyes of a five year old.  Chalkboards and colorful posters lined the walls.  The furnishings consisted mainly of kid sized chairs and tables, the only exception being the big teacher’s desk at the head of the classroom.  I distinctly remember a weird smell in the air that made me feel a little bit nauseous.  I discovered later that it was the teacher’s perfume.

I was one among many curtain climbers crowded into the big room for my first day of kindergarten.  Unlike some of the others, I had never seen the inside of a daycare building or a baby sitter’s house.  I’m not ashamed to say I missed my Mommy!

My Mother in 1963

You may call me a Mama’s boy, but I must tell you that I soon discovered the only way I could endure a day of kindergarten was to carry a photograph of my Mother with me to school.  I remember taking it out during lunch and looking at it for a long time.  I thought she was the prettiest lady in the whole world. She had dark hair and the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen; (and this was before colored contacts.)

This is just one of many childhood memories locked away for safe keeping.  I remember Mom canning vegetables in the hottest part of the summer so I could eat like a hog in the coldest part of the winter.

I remember watching her sew a cowboy outfit that I proudly wore to school.  Somewhere there is a class portrait that includes me sporting my brown tasseled suit and a big grin.  When I was in high school, she also sewed a tag in my gym shorts that read, “Hand made for Mommy’s little boy.”  (Took me a while to live that one down!)  I remember Mom taking me to get my driver’s license and comforting me when I failed the test.  

I remember being scolded, spanked and spoiled all in the same day!  For the spankings and the spoilings and the sewing and the canning and a million other things I don’t have room to include in this article, I would like to say Thanks Mom! I love you!

Not all people have happy memories of childhood.  Not all had a good relationship with their moms.  Frankly, not all people grew up with good moms.  If you don’t have good memories of your mother consider this text from scripture.  God is the speaker.   

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15)  Paraphrase; God is a good mother. 

Here’s another one.  “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.” (Psalm 27:10)  Paraphrase; God is a good father.  God is a good mother.

If you are like me and you have good childhood memories, consider yourself blessed and celebrate this Mother’s Day by saying “Thanks Mom!  I Love You!”  And perhaps it is appropriate to say the same thing to God.  “Thanks Mom!  I Love You!”