Make Me Smile Monday :)

When I was a little girl I thought my mom was Snow White. Well, I didn't really, but I thought she looked just like her. With her black hair, fair complexion and hazel eyes she was my very own Snow White and just as any little girl would be I was very proud to have "Snow White" for my mother. :) 

My mom taught me how to cook and bake from a young age. She taught me to clean, embroider and cross-stitch. She taught me to be compassionate towards the "underdog", that even though not everyone knows it we're all equal in God's eyes. She taught me that when the time came to marry I should choose a man who genuinely shared my faith, who treated his mother and sister(s) with respect. She taught me to watch out for watch for certain warning signs (substance abuse problems, anger problems, problems holding a job, being irresponsible with money etc.). In my little girl heart and mind she was perfect!

The interesting thing about growing from a child into a woman myself is that while it did mean discovering that she is in fact human I also discovered strengths of hers that as a child I couldn't fully appreciate in the same way. 

My mom. She's so beautiful! You can see why I thought she was Snow White!  :)

If I had to choose just one word to describe my mom it would be advocate. My mom's an RPN and works with the elderly, and has for years. She cares for them with great compassion and respect. It's not about the fact that she is a nurse, although that is great it's about how she's a nurse. She makes an effort to get to know each of them as people and in doing so I know she adds a little sunshine to their day. I've seen her in action first hand. When we were kids, every once in a while she would take my brother, sister and I over to the nursing home so we could meet the residents and we got to know quite a few of the residents living there. I knew even then she was bringing us because she valued them so much and she always told us how seeing children could brighten the day of the sick and the elderly. Then when I was 12 years old my mom encouraged me to begin volunteering as a "tea girl" at the nursing home where she worked. I went every Saturday for about an hour and a half and I would take the tea cart from room to room offering a drink and a bedtime snack. I volunteered there until we moved a few years later. After high school I got a job working as a Nurse's Aide there and got to see my mom in action in an even greater capacity. She was always incredibly kind and patient with the residents. She knew who they were. She made conversation. She would joke with them and make them laugh. And all because she cared not out of a sense of obligation. The residents knew and loved my mom back because they knew she cared.

In more recent years I've been amazed to discover how incredibly deep this compassion goes. It's a part of who she is. I don't even  know if I can do it justice in explaining the heart she has for the residents and her nursing peers, but I'll try. 

First and foremost her heart is for the residents. She'll speak on their behalf if she feels their care is being compromised. She'll intervene for them is she feels something is being overlooked. She will lovingly fight for them if their not getting the respect they deserve. She knows first hand how the care of the residents is connected directly to the nurses. So she lends her voice to management on their behalf, letting them in on the struggles that are just naturally a part of being a nurse on the floor.

I think that this compassionate heart of hers is God-given. That God has placed her in different places to be there for people when they had no one else to be there for them. 

My prayer for you this Mother's Day mom (and always) is that you would "have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is" and that this understanding would be what gives you the strength to love the people God places in your life with that God-given compassion that fills up your heart! 

I love you mom and I'm so grateful for the many incredible things you've taught me. Thank-you for nurturing me and helping to make me the woman I am today. The woman I'm becoming.