The Importance of a Mother

By: Shawn Pittman

How can we ever truly appreciate the significance our mothers have in our lives? I realize this is not a very timely post being much closer to Fathers Day than Mothers Day, but the subject has been on my mind quite a bit lately.

It was just over a year ago that my mom was diagnosed with stage four cancer and told she had no more than a couple years to live. This kind of news—after you get over the shock—gets you thinking, of course, about how important your mother really is.

No one person has been more influential in my life than my mom. Any good qualities I possess come from the lessons she taught me. People I meet who know my mom seem eager to talk to me, if for no other reason, than to praise her kindness, her patience, her willingness to help anyone in need, and her strength when dealing with hardships. I can honestly say I don't ever recall meeting someone with a negative word to say about her.

Mom took care of my brother and I to the absolute best of her ability growing up and when we were too old to be taken care of anymore, she continue to shower us with love and wisdom. Some of my brother's and my friends would even look at her as a sort of second mom for the way she guided them.

I can’t imagine where I'd be without my mom's love and support, and my mind always drifts back to the memory of visiting young mothers taking part in Orphan's Tree's Faith, Hope, Love program. Most of us can appreciate the significance of important things such as health and dental treatment or help providing an apartment for a graduating orphan, but the long-term effects of helping a mother in her quest to raise a child are probably more than any of us will ever fully know.

The love and guidance a child receives from her mother (and father as well) knows no limits. These mothers are trying to break a heartbreaking cycle that they themselves were born into. Many are trying to love and raise their child with no real precedent of how to do so, as they had no mother in their lives so show them.

I was blessed to be able to visit a group of these young mothers at the Kostroma ministry center as they prepared a meal for us and their children. Most of them worked full-time to support their child and some had little to no family support. A few even ran their own sewing businesses out of their homes while raising kids. The mothers at all three ministry centers I visited talked about the blessing to be able to take their kids to the centers and receive support from not only staff, but from the other mothers in the program.

By the grace of God, doctors ruled my mom's original diagnosis incorrect; she actually had a type of less aggressive cancer. She fought it and won, and just a few weeks ago, was ruled cancer free. I try now to cherish every moment and am able to spend with my mother, and consider her every word. And I am so thankful for the mothers I met in Russia who are giving their children the same giftt, even though they never received the gift of a mother themselves.