SmithDRay's
Happy Mother's Day
Page
Happy
Mother's Day
Got it? Happy Mother's Day, Okay!!!!!
Bugs Bunny says...
Memory makers
Others oriented
Teachers
Helpers
Encouragers
Real Friends
and
Supporters
Mothers are GOOD listeners.
Quotations in honor of Mothers:
"All that I am or ever hope to
be, I owe to my angel Mother."
-- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
"I remember my mother's
prayers and they have always
followed me. They have clung
to me all my life." -- Abraham
Lincoln (1809-1865)
"My mother was the most
beautiful woman I ever saw.
All I am I owe to my mother. I
attribute all my success in
life to the moral,
intellectual and physical
education I received from
her." -- George Washington
(1732-1799)
"There never was a woman like
her. She was gentle as a dove
and brave as a lioness... The
memory of my mother and her
teachings were, after all, the
only capital I had to start
life with, and on that capital
I have made my way." -- Andrew
Jackson
"Youth fades; love droops, the
leaves of friendship fall; A
mother's secret hope outlives
them all." -- Oliver Wendell
Holmes (1809-1894)
"God could not be everywhere
and therefore he made
mothers." -- Jewish proverb
"Of all the rights of women,
the greatest is to be a
mother." -- Lin Yutang
"The heart of a mother is a
deep abyss at the bottom of
which you will always find
forgiveness." -- Honore' de
Balzac (1799-1850)
"The most important thing a
father can do for his children
is to love their mother."
--Author Unknown
"In all my efforts to learn to
read, my mother shared fully
my ambition and sympathized
with me and aided me in every
way she could. If I have done
anything in life worth
attention, I feel sure that I
inherited the disposition from
my mother."-- Booker T.
Washington
"Woman knows what man has long
forgotten, that the ultimate
economic and spiritual unit of
any civilization is still the
family." -- Clare Boothe Lucefont>
Who am I?
I was born in 1725; I died in 1807. The only godly influence in my life, as far back as I can remember, was my mother, whom I had for only seven years. When she left my life through death, I was virtually an orphan.
My father remarried, sent me to a strict military school, where the severity of discipline almost broke my back. When I couldn't stand it any longer, I left in rebellion at the age of ten. One year later, deciding that I would never enter formal education again, I became a seaman apprentice, hoping somehow to step into my father's trade and at least gain the ability to skillfully navigate a ship.
By and by, through a process of time, I slowly gave myself over to the devil. And I determined that I would sin to my fill without restraint, now that the righteous lamp of my life had gone out. I did that until my days in the military service, where again discipline worked hard against me, but I further rebelled. My spirit would not break; I became increasingly more and a rebel. Because of a number of things with which I disagreed in the military, I finally deserted, only to be captured, and was, like a common criminal, beaten several times in public.
After enduring that punishment, I again fled. I entertained thoughts of suicide on my way to Africa, deciding that would be the place I could get farthest from anyone that knew me. And again I made pact with the devil to live for him.
Somehow, through a process of events, I got in touch with a Portuguese slave trader, and I lived in his home. His wife, who was brimming with hostility, took a lot of it out on me. She beat me, and I ate like a dog on the floor of the home. If I refused to do that, she would whip me with a lash.
I fled penniless, owning only the clothes on my back, to the shoreline of Africa where I built a fire, which attracted a passing ship. The skipper thought that I had gold or slaves or ivory to sell and was surprised to discover that I was a skilled navigator. And it was on that ship that I lived for a long period of time. It was a slave ship. It was not uncommon for as many as six hundred blacks from Africa to be in the hold of the ship, down below, being taken to America.
I went through all sorts of narrow escapes with death only a hair breath away on a number of occasions. One time I opened some crates of rum and got the entire crew drunk. The skipper, incensed with my actions, beat me and threw me down below where I lived on stale bread and sour vegetables for an unendurable length of time. When he brought me above to beat me again, I fell overboard.
Because I couldn't swim, he harpooned me to get me back on the ship. And I lived with a scar in my side, big enough for me to put my fist into, until the day of my death.
Back on board, I was inflamed with fever. I was enraged with the humiliation. A storm broke out, and I wound up again in the hold of the ship, down among the pumps. To keep the ship afloat, I worked alone as a servant of the slaves. There, bruised and confused, bleeding, diseased, I was the epitome of the degenerate man. I remember the words of my mother. I cried out to God in the only way I knew, calling upon His grace and mercy to deliver me, and upon His Son to save me. The only glimmer of light I would find was in a crack in the ship in the floor above me, and I looked up to it and screamed for help. God heard me.
Thirty-one years passed, I married a childhood sweetheart. I entered the ministry. In every place that I served, rooms had to be added to the building to handle the crowds that came to hear the Gospel that was presented and the story of God's grace in my life.
The tombstone above my head reads: Born 1725, died 1807. A clerk, once an infidel and a libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he once long labored to destroy.
I decided before my death to put my life's story into verse. And those words later became a song.
My name is John Newton. The hymn? "Amazing Grace."
So,
Happy Mother's Day
to all Mothers who continue to strive to be the best Mothers possible and to spend energy day after day building Memories, focusing on Others, being a Teacher, a Helper, an Encourager, a Real friend, and an enthusiastic Supporter!
Links to other web pages that honor Mothers:
Mothers Directory - mothers related news, books and web resources.
