The Power of a Mom

It's Mother's Day this week, and I was thinking about the fact that all of us have a mom or had a mom. I had a mom. Gosh, she was a wonderful woman. I don't talk about her much and so I'd love to have the opportunity to read you something about her. I almost never do this, but I wrote about my mom in my book, On My Worst Day. From all outward appearances, you would say, “John's mom didn't know Jesus.” But, she had a role and a place in my life that no one else did. I still remember it now.

The power of what my mother did for me early on has stayed with me and had a large role in my becoming a believer.

So as you think about your mom, remember that not all of us had moms who knew how to take advantage of that beautiful place in our lives. And sometimes we don't realize it or recognize it until later in life. That would be my experience. So let me share this with you. I wrote this chronology of 1962:

“I have never known anyone with a more beautiful heart than my mom. She was a language teacher and a linguist at the time of her death. She was writing a book on root similarities of the romance languages. She sang opera professionally. She was the kindest, most other-centered person I've ever met. 

I was always told by both my parents that they were atheists, but I have a memory... It still makes me cry. 

One evening my dad and I got into an argument over something. I was sent to my room — livid, shaking, fighting back tears until I got out of his presence. Later my mom knocked on the door of my room and entered and sat next to me on my bed. She stroked my hair and eventually, she whispered, 

‘John, there is a place coming where there are no tears and the real you will be fully known. There is One who will make sense of all this pain. I promise you.’

“It was unlike anything that she had ever said to me. We never spoke about it again and I never knew what to do with it. I've wondered if those words guided me to Him.

I picture her in heaven throughout this book. I try to imagine what Jesus was saying to me even before I knew Him. And so I imagined maybe He said something like this,

“‘John, sometimes people trust Me early on and then their lives get misdirected. They marry someone who doesn't trust Me or the melody gets lost amid pain, but I don't forget. No matter how faint, distorted or convoluted, I can ferret out trust. I gave you an astoundingly good mother. You did not yet know how to return her love. You were just a kid, but she knows now. I want you to know that I have not forgotten and she knows. That's as far as we can go right now. Her words set you on a journey for the land and the person she described. You will be twenty-five when she leaves this world. You will be sprawled out on a boulder in the middle of a Connecticut forest, crying out to whoever holds forever. You will beg and demand and shout to be assured that she's safe. You will ache for there to be a God — a good and real and powerful God. You will tell Me what she said that evening on your bed, John... 

I missed not one single word. I was there on that boulder with you and I do only right.’” 

If you’re a mom, I want you to know that sometimes it seems like things aren't getting through or that nobody is picking up what you're giving in love. And so I just want to say to you, it shouldn't seem like I'd picked up anything. I was just a kid and I wasn't making sense of anything, but I still remember those words so clearly. Even now. That's the power of a mom. Happy Mother's Day.

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