While most people consider Mothers’ Day to be a holiday to celebrate women who have or are currently raising children, I was taught by a wise grandmother that it is a day to rejoice in the qualities of all women.
Starting when I was in junior high, she would set up a special luncheon right before Mothers’ Day at a restaurant for her daughters and granddaughters where we would have some exclusive time together. I wouldn’t give birth to my first daughter for another 20 years, but already I was learning that Mothers’ Day was a day to commemorate all women and the role they play in our world.
I can think of many women in my life besides my own mother who have been mothers to me. I am grateful to these women because they have enhanced my life and helped me. My parents couldn’t have raised me by themselves and I have benefited from the influence and love of others.
The same has held true for my own daughters. There have been incredible teachers, neighbors, mothers of their friends, and women at church who have helped to shape and love my daughters. The author Sheri L. Dew gave a talk called “Are We Not All Mothers?” and in it she said, “Few of us will reach our potential without the nurturing of both the mother who bore us and the mothers who bear with us.”
While I do feel an incredible bond to my daughters to whom I have given birth and to my own mother who raised me, this is not the only way to become a mother. There are so many women who love and nurture children, regardless of a biological connection to them. Grandma Patterson was well ahead of her time; Mothers’ Day is for us to celebrate all women, no matter their technical mother status.
In many churches on Mothers’ Day a token of some kind is given to mothers. I love that at my church the gift is given to all women who are 18 years and older in order to recognize the contributions of all women and to honor all of them for their mothering hearts.
In Sheri Dew’s same talk she said, ‘Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our very identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits God gave us.”
It is my hope that we would recognize and honor not only the mothers who gave birth to us and raised us, but also the many wonderful women who have mothered us. Let us realize the powerful effect they have had on our lives. In so doing, Mothers’ Day will truly become a day to show respect for all women.