What Makes a Good Mom?

This question was posed in an e-mail I received titled “FOR ALL THE MOTHERS.”

“What makes a good mother anyway?  Is it patience?

Compassion?  Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby,

cook dinner and sew a button on a shirt all at the same time?”

Of course, when I read this, I thought—broad hips?  All right, I’m in! But, seriously, what does make someone a good mother?  The answer has nothing to do with the ability to have a child. Thousands of women each year conceive and then put their children up for adoption because they lack what it takes to be a Mom…the determination to love unconditionally and unselfishly.  Good moms “corner the market” in the love department.

Does it take perfection?  On the contrary, it takes a woman who is willing to fail, but who learns from her mistakes and tries again.  A good mother knows that experience is the best teacher. She will learn all that she can from her successes and her failures so that she can pass her knowledge along to her children.

Do you need a college education to be a good mother?  Not really! It’s an amazing thing, but when God gives the gift of children, He equips us beyond what any university has to offer.  By the time our children are grown, we’ve acted as nurse, doctor, teacher, preacher, lawyer, counselor, banker, and nutritionist. So, instead of adding M.D. or P.H.D. after your name, just say I’m Kathy Word, G.O.M. (God Ordained Mom).  It is the highest degree one can hold, so walk with your head held high.

Do good moms work outside the home?  Some do…and some don’t. Do they sing beautiful lullabies?  Some do, and some should sing solo (so low no one can hear them).  Are they good cooks? Some are, but then again, some families thank God for fast food.  Are they stout, thin, pretty, plain, funny, solemn, friendly, reserved, dependable, scatterbrained, preoccupied or devoted?  That would probably depend on whom you ask.

Proverbs 31 tells us of a virtuous woman who is strong and kind.  She is a priceless treasure as she guards her husband’s heart and provides for and watches over her household.  The scriptures also tell us that a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalms 111:10) and the key ingredient to being “good” at whatever you do.  I guess the only way to know if someone is a good Mom is to go right to “the horse’s mouth”…ask her kids. Do they call her blessed?

 


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