Have you ever wondered when Americans started celebrating Mother’s Day? The holiday was born out of one woman’s desire to honor her mother’s life of sacrifice and grace.
Born in 1864 in Grafton, West Virginia, Anna Jarvis witnessed the aftermath of the Civil War through a child’s eyes. Her mother, Anna Maria Reeves-Jarvis, had spent the war organizing women to nurse wounded soldiers from both the North and South, and generally attempting to hold her border-state community together. After the war, Anna Maria started “Mothers’ Friendship Days” to reconcile families that had been divided by the conflict.
Throughout her life, Anna Maria modeled the ideals of Victorian motherhood. She gave up her dreams of college in order to tend to an older husband and four children. She bore the loss of seven other children with grace. She taught Sunday school in the local Methodist church for 20 years and stayed active in benevolent work.
Anna Maria’s death in 1905 devastated her daughter. Two years later, Anna got the idea to found a holiday remembering her mother, and all mothers, whom she felt could never be thanked enough.
Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908 in Grafton (where Anna grew up) and Philadelphia (where she lived as an adult). Later, in a resolution passed May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress officially established the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day
God says we are to honor our mother. “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” Deuteronomy 5:16
To honor your mother means to place on her a great value. It is so important to God that we do this that He attaches a reward to our obedience. He promises long life and things going well (literally: to make beautiful; figuratively, to make happy, successful, right). I do not know anyone who does not need that in their lives! Think of it, the Creator of the universe will make things go well for you if you honor your mother. That is too good to pass up! On the other hand, the Scripture says that “He who curses his father or his mother, his lamp will go out in time of darkness.” Proverbs 20:20
Whoa! That is serious. God will curse you?? And you thought Hallmark was into Mother’s Day?? That scripture says God will chew you up and spit you out… Not a good idea to disrespect your mother!
This Mother’s Day, honor your mom. Spend money on her. Tell her you love her. Thank her. Tell her a story you remember of when you and she did something together. It will be the honor for her God is asking of you.