For the last 30 days, I have written about some amazing women. They have been women of education, notoriety, and wisdom. They've been women who have loved me and invested in my life. But these women are not my mom. They have not known me since the day I began to exist or seen my feisty, stubborn child-self and loved me anyway. I am thankful for these other 29 women, but the only person to round out this list is my mom, Joy Smith.
If I had the time or talent, I could write a book on my mom. She has lived her life loving people, serving her family, and knowing Jesus. I can't count the people she's influenced and invested in. As her daughter, I've been privileged to see this woman up close for most of my life. I've seen her humanity in the midst of challenging days, and at the same time, I've seen her unwavering trust in God. My mom has taught me how to be a wife and mother; she's shown me how to live in community. She's given me practical skills like cooking and encouraging others. As I think about the greatest lesson from my mom, though, I am drawn to something that seems to permeate all of her roles. My mom is a woman fully alive in Christ.
As I think about what it means to be a woman, I think of wholeness. I think of knowing yourself and understanding how God has designed you. I think of contentment and humility. Being fully alive means we are at home in ourselves. And it means we are thriving in relationship with God and his Kingdom.
I've seen my mom's fullness in different stages of my life. In my childhood, my mom was mostly at home. She wasn't employed anywhere officially, but she did a lot of side work. She taught piano lessons, accompanied choirs and instrumentalists, worked as a substitute, and was consistently involved in worship and ministry at the church. She was an incredible mom. She modeled a way of nurturing her kids, while also using her gifts and passions outside the home. Looking back, I am thankful for this view of motherhood. I saw her pouring into her family, but she never seemed to lose herself or her desires in that time.
I saw this Christ-driven wholeness in my mom again when we moved to Arkansas. The move was incredibly difficult for all of us, but my mom walked into a very different role when we settled in Springdale. For the first time since I could remember, my mom had to work full time. I remember the days of discipline and commitment that anchored my mom to going back to work each day. Instead of grumbling about her job (which she did do sometimes - she is human), she asked God to use her in the environment he'd given her. The days in Arkansas were some of the most valuable to me because I saw my parents' passion for Jesus run through every bit of life. For my mom, this meant she made her job about revealing Christ to others. Our family prayed with and for her as she walked into that office each day. We prayed for the people she worked with, and we formed relationships with many of them.
Outside of work, I saw my mom continue to invest in people. In our small church plant down there, we had several women turn to my mom as a mentor and spiritual encourager. She spent so much time with these women - loving them, affirming them, inviting them into our family. I watched her take phone calls at various hours, pray with people, serve in tangible ways, and make herself available to the people God had placed around us. My mom has always been good at loving people in their messiness. Our Arkansas years revealed a woman willing to love deeply and follow Jesus at any cost. And she was full of so much joy and gratitude because of God's work going on around us.
Finally, I find myself in present-day life. The last few years have been special ones because my mom is only 30 minutes away and we are friends more than ever. Today, she and my dad are serving in yet another kind of ministry. They are in a community that asks them to get messy, again, and they are seeing God's Kingdom at work. My mom still works full-time. She still invests in women of various ages and backgrounds. And today, I'd say she's living to the fullest. She is a grandma now, and she's collected four more kids. Her life is fuller in the literal sense of time and opportunity, but she would also tell you how thankful she is for God's goodness.
In the last few years, my life has changed a lot. Marriage, jobs, loss, change - it's all, in some way, driven me back to my mom for support and counsel. Through all these events, my mom has been my very best friend. She has listened to me and sat with me through terribly difficult days. She has encouraged me and pointed me back to Father. She's challenged me and gently, but boldly called me on my junk.
But of all the roles my mom plays in my life, she is simply my greatest affirmer. My mom sees truth and names it. In my life, I have needed a person who knows me well and can tell me what is true. My mom has shown me that a full life in Christ only comes when we trust and obey. I've often let worry or fear block those ways, but my mom has continuously redirected my eyes to a God who loves me even more than she does.
Joy Smith is a woman of love. She is a woman of strength and wisdom. She is funny and warm. She invites people into relationship with a kind hello and a willingness to see them. My mom is an advocate, a rejoicer, a person of authenticity in everything.
As I've written over the years, my mom has been my greatest supporter and reader. She somehow understands exactly what I mean to convey through my words, and she makes a point to tell me. I know the possibility of a full life in Christ because I have seen it in my own mother. I am selflessly and consistently loved by this woman, and I am overwhelmed by the fact that she is my mom. I get to be her daughter. I get to receive her love on a daily basis. I get to witness Christ in her, the hope of glory.
So at the end of 30 days, I am saying thank you. Thank you, Mom, for inspiring these days of tribute and lessons learned. Thank you for following Jesus with your whole self. And thank you for loving me and liking who I am.