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I have always loved kids.  Over the years, I always had an easier time picturing myself as a mother than I did of wearing a white dress down the aisle for my wedding.

I have never been married and I have no children.  However, I have many adoptive nieces and nephews all across the globe.  I’m “the fun aunt” to many of my friends’ children and I love being able to live currently with my nephew and be “Auntie M” or “Tia M” depending on which language is being spoken.

In Venezuela, and a few other places, there are a number of people who call me “mom.”  Not “mom” with a roll of the eyes and a sarcastic drawl of the vowel like my younger sisters said when I was being the bossy older sister.  Rather, “mom” as a term of appreciation and respect for being a part of their spiritual birth and walking with them through their early years of faith.  “Mom” as someone who will always keep them in her prayers.  “Mom” as a cry for help when the journey gets too hard to walk alone.

I thank God for the opportunity to be “mom” to many spiritual children.  I thank God for transforming my attitude from disappointment at not having any children in the traditional way to a feeling of belonging and fulfillment through the countless children whose lives I have had the opportunity to touch as a spiritual mom.  I thank God for altering my expectations.  If you have had similar frustrations or disappointments, I pray that He can fill you with a similar peace and perspective.  We need more spiritual moms!

But most of all, in honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday, I thank God for my spiritual moms.  First and foremost, my own mom, Jocelynn Goff.  Also her mom, Barbara Brown, my dad’s foster mom, Evelyn Cobb, and many other spiritual moms (more than I can list) who have taught me by their example to be the spiritual mom I have the opportunity to be today.  May God bless us all to pass on a legacy of spiritual motherhood.

One special way to honor your mom and/or a spiritual mom in your life this Mother’s Day, is to make a donation to Iron Rose Sister Ministries in her honor.  We will send her a virtual bouquet of roses (like an e-card) and a special note.  Your donation will help us continue to equip women to be spiritual mothers through the resources we make available.

Thank you!  And have a blessed Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day Sunday morning usually came with breakfast in bed.  Mother’s Day 1989 for the Goff family was a different story.

There was no breakfast in bed that day.  Instead, Mom was served a muffin on the fold-out table between the front seats of the much-anticipated Ford Club Wagon, full-size van our family had purchased that weekend.  It was affectionately called Seymour (see-more) because you could “see more” when riding in it.  The inspiration for the name came when Chrystal was sitting on dad’s shoulders when we took the van to Avery Island and the Tabasco factory the following weekend.

Mom loved that van and mourned the day they sold it.  Yes, it was only a material possession, but it represented thousands of miles of family road trips, cargo space that held loads of dirty laundry after camp or groceries bought in bulk for church activities, bench seats for giggling girls headed to slumber parties, and leg room for their four growing girls.

So, on this Throwback Thursday, I’ll send a shout-out to Seymour in honor of my mom and thank her for the many miles she drove to bless us and others with our van.