By Dr. Froswa Booker-Drew
“Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” –Proverbs 31:30
Brother Gerald Davis, thank you! I was pleasantly surprised that one of the chapters of my book was used as a Sunday School lesson at Cornerstone Baptist Church this morning. The chapter was on forgiveness and explaining the difficult relationship I had with my father. I still love my father even after all of these years that he’s been gone but some of his decisions impacted my life in ways that were not the best. Before he passed, he asked for my forgiveness. I forgave him and it was one of the most powerful things I’ve done in my life. I learned to let go so that I could experience the freedom I was missing.
I must give credit to my mother because I watched this woman embody forgiveness. My mother has endured some very painful and private traumas. I’ve learned a lot watching her in how she’s dealt with situations. I think we confuse forgiveness with allowing yourself to be a doormat. At first, I couldn’t understand how she could forgive people because I didn’t understand what it really meant. What she was doing was releasing people from keeping a hold on her. In some situations, forgiveness included saying goodbye.
Those lessons molded me into understanding that forgiveness was bigger than me and required something much more exceptional to accomplish. My mother is a nurturer. She is giving by nature and all of my life, I’ve seen her love even when others didn’t comprehend it or were not reciprocal. I am so much like my mother. I am forever grateful for this lesson and so many others my mother taught me. The lesson I am most grateful for is the introduction to my faith. In teaching me about the love of God and God’s forgiveness, it freed me to do the same for others.
I can’t say I have it down to a science but what I can say is that I can point to so many experiences in my life that my mother’s investment in my spiritual growth is evident. I am forever grateful that she’s given me a gift that continues to give to others which started decades ago. The times I didn’t want to go to church, or speak for special services, sing in the choir, or participate in Sunday School, she didn’t stop because she knew what the outcome would be. She forgave my moments of unhappiness because she knew there was something greater to come and when times were good or bad, I had a foundation to sustain me. She planted seeds that have sprouted and I am thankful that she never gave up.
There are so many mothers who planted seeds that at the time, they were doing what they knew was best. It wasn’t always popular or accepted but they trusted God to water their gift of faithfulness. The same seeds my mother planted in me, I have instilled in my daughter. I am honored to have a mother who didn’t know the outcome but trusted God to give the increase. I am honored to be a mother of a daughter who even as a college student understands the power of God in her life.
Thank God for mothers, for their unwavering faith, for the many lessons that have been taught and more importantly, for believing in the harvest even when they couldn’t see what was happening in the soil they were tilling.
I am because of you.
