I Remember Mama

I was just thinking about - - -

Sixty years ago, a Movie adaptation of the play – I REMEMBER MAMA – was produced. It is a play that is based on the diary and memoir entitled, Mama's Bank Account, It focuses on a family from Norway trying to adapt into life in the city of San Francisco in the 1910s. There was a Television adaptation as well. The idea of the Play was to share the lives of an immigrant family adapting into the new world and the various experiences encountered along the way. It reminds us of a different time when a family was more inter-dependent and when the Mother was more central to family life.

Some years ago, the humorist and storyteller, Lewis Grizzard, would soberly remind us all, “Don’t Forget To Write Your Mama – I Wish I Could Still Write Mine.” Many of us can identify with those sentiments as we approach another Mother’s Day. For some, Mother is just a memory of days past. For others, there remains the opportunity to “Remember Mama” in a special way this weekend.

The history of Mother’s Day is interesting. The brief review states:

The woman credited with founding Mothers Day is Anna Jarvis. Anna Jarvis was inspired by her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis who organized "Mothers' Work Day Clubs" in the 1850's. The clubs provided medicines for the poor, inspected milk for children, provided nursing care for the sick, and shelters for children with tuberculosis. When the Civil War broke out…In a remarkable display of courage and compassion the women nursed soldiers from both sides and saved many lives…
Anna Jarvis was born in 1850 and was an impressionable child and teenager when her mother was at the peak of her courageous work. So in 1907, two years after her mother's death she organized the first "mothers' day" in Grafton, WV that the work of peace-making and the war against poverty which her mother waged would not be forgotten.
In 1908, Anna Jarvis requested of her pastor that they have a special service on Sunday to honor all of the mothers of the congregation. On May 10, 1908 they had a special service and presented a carnation to all the mothers who were present in that service.
Somehow that tradition seemed to catch on and on May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May every year as Mother's Day. He said it would be a time of public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.

For almost a hundred years, the tradition of Honoring one’s Mother has occurred on the second Sunday of May. In Proverbs 31:28 through 31 we have these words regarding the godly Mother and Wife:

“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.” My Mama used to remind her children of the truth in Nahum 1:7, "The Lord is good; a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him."

Try to Remember Your Mama. Call her or write her. I wish I could still call or write mine!

Think about that with me - - -