Joe shared the history of Mother’s Day in his sermon yesterday and I was inspired enough to want to share it with you (you can Google it yourself to find much more as I share only a glimpse back at what touched me).

In 1868, Anne Reeves Jarvis organized an American ‘Mother’s Friendship Day’ to have mothers gather after the Civil War to promote RECONCILIATION between Union and Confederate.

In 1872, JulIa Ward Howe encouraged a World ‘Mother’s Peace Day’ in response to war with these words to women in her ‘Mother’s Day Proclamation’:  “Let them solemnly take council with each other as to the means by which the great human family can live in PEACE.”

It is Anna Reeves Jarvis’s daughter, Anna, who then lobbied for a day to honor ‘mothering’ which became official in 1914; as the holiday transformed into something much more commercial, she was completely disillusioned with how it moved away from its roots.

No matter how one feels about Mother’s Day in our current culture, I find great inspiration in those women and the seeds they planted.

I love broadening and deepening from ‘mother’ to ‘mothering’...the nurturing of reconciliation and peace not just within MY family but within OUR HUMAN family.

In that I find profound purpose.

For me, ‘reconciliation, peace and purpose’ beat ‘roses, cards and candy’ any day!

Happy Mothering!