This may be the first Mother’s Day you can’t hug your mom in person. Some of you, may not even be able to send your mom flowers. Thanks to Covid-19, most businesses are closed. For us military spouses, the distance is something we’re used to, but that doesn’t make it easy. However, there is one way we can all honor our mothers, whether we get to see them in person or not.

We can take their advice.

Do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Proverbs 6:20

I confess, for a few years of my life, I didn’t listen to anything my mother said. There was a lot of confusion, because we moved a lot and tried out different denominations. I know now that she was only trying to find the church that was best for me, but at the time, I didn’t get it. There were issues from when a church leader said my baptism wasn’t valid, because it was done at a different denomination. The moment I was baptized was one of the best of my childhood, and I knew it was valid. So I didn’t want to go to church after being faced with such confusion at the age of thirteen. We couldn’t go to the church where I was baptized, because my mom was discriminated and judged for my dad’s lack of involvement. These issues, so often is where the institutions of man go wrong.

She found a new church, convinced me to go and I liked it. Until I saw the aftermath of a trusted church leader harming two young adults in the worst way. He was the type of church leader, everyone I trusted said was anointed and a true man of God. After wrecking the lives of the innocent he was supposed to mentor and protect, he fled to his home country, and earthly justice was never able to bring closure. It made me feel unsafe, and question the legitimacy of church in general.

At that time, I was a teenager, and I still put my dad’s face on God, so there was already issues there, and this was an event that made me question God all the more. After that horror rocked the church we attended, I only showed up to see the friends I’d made there. My heart harden, and I sought other answers and different ways of life. I despised my mother’s teachings, and didn’t want anything to do with her God.

Eventually, I left the church all together. Those were the darkest, most awful days of my life. If I could go back in time to stop myself from venturing down that thorny path, I would. I let the sins of a mortal effect my relationship with God. It was the worst thing I could have done to myself, and only led down a path of destruction and pain.

When I turned twenty one, I gained enough sense to crawl back to God. Thankfully, he is forgiving and received me. My life, my perspective changed for the better. It was an accelerated maturity and I can’t image going back to the confusion of that dark way of thinking. I know what it’s like to live without his presence. It is the worst place to be. Through it all, Jesus’s open arms took me back.

I was redeemed.

Yet, I know that during that dark time of my life, my mom never stopped praying for me.

So if you are reading this and your child is off the path you know is best for them, believe me, there is great power in prayer.

In fact, to have a praying mom is a gift from God. My life is a testimony of that.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

My mom did that for me, and even when I departed from the right path, she kept praying for me. If you are in the position she was, don’t give up hope. Your child will return.

Truly I am your servant, LORD; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains. Psalm 116:16

This couldn’t be more true for me. Since my dad was checked out of my life, and dealt with his own darkness, it was my mother who ministered to me.

I don’t know what I would have done, or where I’d be without her.

Motherhood really is the most powerful ministry on earth.

In a time where sadly, it’s popular to despise motherhood and resent children, we must celebrate those who don’t fall down that hideous path. Celebrate them by honoring their teachings, their wisdom and their love.

I know from what my mom has told me, the best way to do that, is to live your best, so you miss out on the worst.

That often happens by taking a mother’s advice.

Kimberly Humphreys