It is the week of Mother’s Day. I was curious as to the origins of this day, so I did what you do in 2017. I "Googled" it.

I learned that a lady named Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in 1908 in a Methodist church in West Virginia, and that she had campaigned for the day to be recognized as early as 1905, the year that her own mother died.

In 1908 the U.S. Congress rejected a proposal to make Mother’s Day an official holiday, with some members joking that they would also have to proclaim a Mother-in-Law’s Day (I am not making this up).

It was 1914 before Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May of each year as a national holiday set aside to honor mothers.

Fast forward 100-plus years. Can you imagine any member of Congress today voting against Mother’s Day? Talk about a way to enact term limits!

It’s funny. Mother’s Day ranks third on the list of high attendance Sundays in most churches, falling behind only Easter and Christmas. It seems that the gift of their presence beside their mother in church is the best present that many can give, no matter their age.

What price would I pay to be able to sit with my mom in church this week? She’s been gone for 12 years now. Of course, I’m not sure when the last time I was in church with her on Mother’s Day. I think it may have been 1984. I had graduated the previous day with my master’s degree, and she came to visit me.

I do know this. It is God who created the family, and who has ordained it as the first institution for the education and edification of children. God has given to mothers, and to fathers, the responsibility to teach and guide our children toward him. Whatever we provide our children, there is nothing more important than the truths that remind us that we are to live our lives for his glory.

I am so grateful for parents who taught me with words and actions that my life does not belong to me. I am so grateful they pointed me to Jesus, and I pray that I did the same for my two sons.

Thank God for your mother. Make the commitment to be the mother, or father, that God called you to be.