On Her Birthday

Today is the day, October 3, on which my mother was born. I honor her memory today with a story...

When I was about to get married my mom gave me a wrapped present. It was a small, jewelry type box. I opened it to find two small strips of cloth. She asked, "Do you know what those are?" Since I had no idea I responded, "No." She went on to tell me they were the apron strings. She then explained that she understood that I was starting my family. She was "cutting the apron strings. She expected for my loyalty to be to my new wife and future kids. She gave me permission to put my family before her, my dad and my siblings. She had loved me and now she was setting me free to love as I had never done before.

28 years of marriage and 5 kids later, this remains one of the greatest gifts I ever received. May I bless others in similar ways. May I continue to show the love to others that you showed to me. May I continue to grow love in my family that I first learned from you. May I release it in the next generation.

Song of the Day

Love Grows Love
Caedmon's Call

Dedicated to mom

you said to “put on a happy face”
on a high school stage
but I read what you really meant
in your handwriting on a Bible page
you waited like you told me
though we knew it right away,
it took eight and a half more years
to finally say

I fell in love with you
and that love became something new
it keeps getting stronger
than we ever could have longed
love keeps growing more love

when we got the news
we had to call our families
and start painting the room
a nice, bright blue
our vows they started breathing
and they took on flesh and blood
and we held them in our arms
and tasted God was good

I fell in love with you
and that love became something new
it added a name and it added a smile
it keeps getting bigger every further mile
there on your bended knee
we sewed the seeds of our history
they’re coming up stronger
than we ever could have longed
love keeps growing more love

if love is an echo of the heart
the heart is a canyon
that stretches wild and free
without an end
and breaks through every wall
that holds us in

I’m on the other side of the world
to see what changed you so
my heart breaks with the broken
and it dances with the hope
you told me I would find here
but I could not understand
until I’m walking here beside you
hand in hand