If you say “quickly” with three syllables, I think you can grasp motherhood.  Let me explain.  It’s Mother’s Day weekend and I am out on the porch next to a sleeping “Grandi.”  She’s tired today and her body and spirit bear the distinguishing marks of investment into, first children, and now grandchildren…for a lifetime.  It has been her life’s work for the last forty years and she is good at it.  She has earned the “tired” given what she has poured into it. 

Our three-year-old grandson is a piece of work and a measure of challenge.  His dad pimped out his “Gator” vehicle with a car battery when he was two.  He can drive all day.  He has been driving long before he could talk.  He drives all around the property on his John Deere Gator mini-car.  He is a good driver and thoroughly enjoys it.  He is also proficient at pushing the boundaries.  The other night his mother was heading him toward bed and noticed that he had not put his Gator back in the garage.  She charged him to go out and get that done before he headed off to bed.  He directly headed for the door and the Gator…and for another lap around the property and the pond in a circuitous route back to the garage.  He lives to drive his Gator. 

He is also still working on the finer distinctions of diction and clarity of speech and that gets us to the three-syllabled “quickly.”  Try it.  At first, I could not tell what he was saying to me.  Then I realized that this strong-willed rascal was spinning a tale in that inimitable three-year-old-learning-how-to-speak talk that is so cute and memorable.  I want to freeze him here and enjoy it.  But, of course, it does not work that way.  Kids are so cute.  But they are also a lot of work and a great challenge.

The Bible says that children are a gift from the Lord, a “heritage”  (Psalm 127:3).  That term speaks of an assigned portion that God gave to each mother and father and family.  The priests were given no allotment of land in the Bible.  When the text notes that they were allotted no land by God, it uses this term.  The Psalmist picks the term up to speak of children in Psalm 127. 

Every mother, I know this first hand by watching my wife through the years and now our daughter and daughter-in-laws, makes a huge difference in the lives of their children.  The accumulation of dollar cost averaging investments of service and tutelage adds up over time and accrues.  Some investments see little immediate return.  Mothers can feel like they are losing.  The best of them play the long game.  Short term results are not always a keen bellwether for what lies ahead in the life of the child. 

The best work of Motherhood is done in quiet and unseen ways.  In fact, quiet prayer on one’s knees before God is the leverage work of motherhood and parenting.  Our Father in heaven is listening.  None of that is wasted time or in vain.  God’s collecting that incense.

Motherhood is exhausting and debilitating.  First, a mother gives up her body, but then that is only the beginning of the “give ups” that add up over a life time.  But what a faithful mother gives a child and a faithful grandmother a grandchild is worth its weight in gold growing up.  Motherhood will bring disappointment and sadness and can seduce you to think the labor has been in vain.  Labor, yes.  Sorrow, at times.  But vain investments in the sacrifice of motherhood, never! 

Of course, there are also a million joys along the way that last for a lifetime.  Now all of them are not three-year-old articulation joys, but that’s one of them.  To hear a little man learning to talk, who long ago learned how to drive his Gator around the property, say “quickly” with three syllables is an unusual joy.  It can also be an inducement to stay at it.  None of life lasts very long.  The challenges in motherhood come.  They are stout.  Capture the joys and collect them along the way.  The thrill of seeking to bring a child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is one of life’s great privileges…hard, but good.  So, keep going Mom!  We see you.  We live in your debt.  You’ve earned your nap.  Now enjoy the fruits of your faithfulness.  Thank God for good moms who have indelibly marked our development along the way.  A good mother is a treasure to be valued, a discipline to be kept and an accomplishment worth celebrating this weekend.  Oh, and of course, check and make sure the Gator is in the garage.