Monday's thoughts

"Mother's Day" May 10th

I am working with several ideas for the Mother's Day sermon. Sue Monk Kidd in her book, "The Secret Life of Bees" develops a fictional story about a young girl whose mother was killed. She struggles with the idea that her mother left her and tries to come to terms with the idea that she is a "motherless child". The book pursues the question, "Who is my mother?" and concludes that one has parental role models. No matter what our mother was able to do for us or failed to do for us; no matter if we know our mothers or if we never knew her; no matter how much we appreciated our mothers or how much we failed to understand her, there are parental role models. When Sue Monk Kidd asks the question, "Who is my mother?" she looks out and sees many people are her mother. There is comfort in that.

I think what I am going to try to do with this theme is to lift up the importance of knowing who our mother is and allowing her to be who she is. Our mother was not perfect; she was not divine and yet the imperfections made her special.

What does our mother want from life? Is she happy with her lot in life or would she have wanted to take a different path? Was motherhood restrictive or liberating? If she had lived at a different time and place would she have chosen a different path? In a world where men dominate does she ever wish she were a man?

I'd love to hear what you know about your mother. What is special about her; odd about her; wonderful about her?

Write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your thoughts click on the box below.


I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles