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As a young, college age woman with zero mother experience, I initially thought writing for this Mother’s Day might be challenging, strange, and even awkward. I sat Sunday morning, wondering how I was going to take a service that is almost always (and rightfully so) about life as a mother and throw my two cents in. I can almost hear generations of women before me whispering shouting, “YEAH WELL YOU’VE NEVER HAD A PERSON CLIMB OUT OF YOU”.  Yes, it is true, I know absolutely nothing about being a mom, besides the fact that my mom is pretty awesome.

All my tensions faded once the gracefully real Kim Waldie began her message.

No, I do not know about being a mother. But I DO know about being a woman. I know about being a person. I know about having my identity compromised and about realizing where it belongs. And thanks to Kim, I recently had the revelation that I DID learn much of this from my mom.

It always threw me a bit as a kid whenever someone would commend my mother’s character based on my brother and I’s actions. (It also made me weirdly self-aware for about 30 seconds, but I usually got over that and resumed my perpetual wild child status). I remember thinking how weird it was that people saw her as somebody’s mom, because I saw her do much more than mother. I have seen my mom be a hospital worker, a homemaker, a wife, a friend, a student, a GRAD student, a volunteer, and soon I will see her be a social worker. I have a hard time believing that this is not the case for many of us. We never see our parents as just parents, because we are constantly seeing everything else they do.

The fact remains that whether my mom was being a mom, or anything else, she has always been her. She’s got the same sense of humor, the same values, and the same attitude. Through so many different experiences and areas of her life, she has brought these things with her (though there are plenty of other lessons she has learned and shared, but I’m writing a blog post, not a novel). She is herself to the very core, because at the very core, she seeks God first.

Revelations 1:8 is an extremely clear statement as to how important and necessary it is to find our core identity in Christ. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." When we find our identity and our heart in line with the God who was, and is, and is to come, we begin to live our lives with a consistent, God-centered view on all that was, and is, and is to come to us. We nurture the desire that has been placed in everyone to seek eternity.

So this week, whether you are a mother or not, I challenge you with this:

Celebrate your mothers, one another, and yourself. Celebrate not only for what you are--such as a mother, doctor, businessperson, father-- but for who you are; a child of God.

Written by: Brianna Vanderveen

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant