five minute friday: what mama did

Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post!  To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked image here.  Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about.  You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc.  At the end of 5 minutes, you stop.  Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours.  It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the phrase: ” what mama did ”  (That’s what I went with, at least….because it was hard to pick “a word” without doing a buncha thinking ahead of time.)

What to choose from?  What to write about?  My mom will totally end up reading this, because that’s the kinda mom she is.  Even at 31 years old, she still keeps tabs on who this young boy has become.  That’s what mama did.   That’s what mama does.

She never allowed my lot (or hers, or ours, for that matter) to be chosen by what life handed us.  As a single mom of 5 for many years, she had humility to know there was something we needed that was beyond what she could offer.

She was a “Mama Bear”, and the kind that gave it a definition.  Yet she knew her cubs wouldn’t be whole without something larger.  She kept us involved in the Church and life-transforming liturgy (the work of the people).  She connected us with opportunities that called greatness into, and out of us.  She even found a man who had a lot of experience calling that greatness out of people, and he invited us to be his children as well…as he made her his bride.  Certainly she was capable of much – going back to school, starting a new career, caring for a large family at the same time.  But one of the greatest things that mama did?  She pointed her children to a bigger picture of Hope for tomorrow – based not in human accomplishments, but a solid Hope in something Christ-ish. 🙂

Done.

There ya’ go mom.  And it’s not even Mother’s Day.  😉