As we come to a close for the month of May, let’s keep in consideration that this month was set aside to honor two kinds of people.

One is mothers, the one who is responsible for carrying life and the other are those who respect the power of prayer. As I look at these two kinds of people, I can’t help but to put them together in this reading.

Sometimes mothers, jokingly remind their children of how many hours they stayed in the labor room just to bring them into the world. This is simply to remind them that a mother would endure anything for her child to ensure safety and happiness, and to show them that a mother’s care is beyond what they could ever possibly think or know.

Sometimes a mother can do all she can physically to help her child, but sometimes she has to go a step further to a place she cannot touch her child with her physical hand, but her mental hand.

And that hand is called prayer. A mother never stops praying for her child. Her praying and caring goes hand in hand. In caring for her child, she is simply faced with nurturing, protecting and the concerns of her child. From the womb until a child is born, a mother watches her child grow. For about three trimesters, a mother knows the whereabouts of her child; but beyond that, she cannot be with that child.

But through praying, a mother will always have a special contact, through God, with her child. No matter how far the child is away, there is no circumstance that the mother may be in that will prohibit her from being in touch, not physically, but mentally. When I speak of circumstances, I think of how a young mother who has to work, sits at her job wondering if her child is being taken care of as she would, if she didn’t have to work. I think of a mother as she watches her child grow older and goes to school, and she wonders if her child is being taken care of among all the other 20 something children in class.

I think about a mother as she watches her child grows up to be a teenager and start to date and how she wonders if her child is being supervised as he or she goes away from home on a field trip or to a dance. I think about how a mother watches as her child leaves the nest and she wonders if her child is being treated right and loved by their spouse. It has always been said that when a child is young, they are on your lap, but when they are grown they are on your heart. A mother’s prayer is that her child will be grown before she leaves this world. This prayer is a sacred one.

It is sacred because she feels solely responsible for her child who cannot take care of itself. But a mother always prepares for that child’s life in the event that she has an untimely death. Don’t you remember when she said “take care of my baby?” She may have said it one day when your mind was not thinking of her death. You may have just thought she was just talking. She may have said it to the father, the grandparents, her sister or brother or any one who was she felt was responsible enough to take care of the child. No, she wasn’t just talking; she was planning to prepare someone else for that job. It may have just been a gesture between conversation and a heart-to-heart talk.

Now, on the other hand, if the child is grown when the mother leaves this world, she has a sense of peace because that child is old enough to take care of himself. We must never take a mother for granted. Even if the mother is not where she should be. Always remember, she decided to go the nine months despite her financial situation or health to bring you into this world; remember that she nurtured you through sickness by staying up at night despite the fact that she didn’t get any sleep; remember that time after time, she watched out the window for you to come home; remember that she did not buy her that beautiful dress, instead she bought you a needed pair of shoes or a toy; remember that she went out her way to put food on the table despite how tired she was from her job; remember that she could have stayed at home and watch her favorite show instead of sitting out in the hot sun or rain to watch you play ball, cheering happily; remember that she could have punished you for breaking her favorite china; but instead she said “that’s OK baby, I can get another one;” remember that she didn’t care how much the piano lessons were, she believed that you would be a maestro; remember all that when you decides not to speak to her because she didn’t approve of your going out with your friends because she had an intuition that something was going to happen remember that no matter how wrong you think your mother is, she has been around long enough, and from experience, she knows. Remember, by far, a praying mother is priceless.

Beverly Gibson is a Ferriday resident.