She is clothed with strength, dignity and math skills. There isn’t a human on the face of this earth that could convince me that moms aren’t math geniuses.
For the past twenty seven years of my life, I have been a mother. And most recently a new empty nester, I have had droves of extra alone time to reflect. Or pout, about being alone. I sometimes find myself counting the days until one of my daughters come home. It also suddenly dawned on me one day that I measured the last twenty two years of motherhood by school years. Year after year, plans were always made from August until May to coincide with a public school year.
Prior to my girls being in school, I was constantly measuring other things. Baby formula. How many ounces of water per scoop of baby formula? Diapers. How many pounds should they weigh before they move up to the next size of diapers? Baby cereal. How many teaspoons of cereal per ounce of formula? Pediatrician visits. How often should you bring the baby in for wellness visits for each year of their young lives? Sitting up and rolling over. How old should they be before this mobility milestone happens? Walking. How many steps did they take for the first time before they fell down?
Moms are always calculating something.
Cooking. Preparing perfectly measured meals that fit an ever growing, ever changing and ever picky family. Time management and math skills are first cousins. Moms are always mapping out their schedules to fit in the maximum number of errands, appointments, and pickups before the end of day. Sometimes with only seconds to spare. But they get it done. Therapist. Every mom has to schedule extra time to help their children decompress from their day.
As my daughters became older, the math became a little more difficult. Making sure that each child had equal number of gifts and equal dollars spent for each birthday, holiday and Christmas. As much math that mom’s are responsible for, daughters keep up with their own math as well. Being a fair mathematician was always appreciated by my girls.
The mind of a mom is crammed full of the math that it took to raise our children. Each pound, each date, each doctor visit, each medicine dropper, each ounce, each birthday, every milestone of childhood, every holiday, every school play or sport, each haircut, each shopping trip, each trip to grocery store, every mile driven, every dollar spent, each pet, and every book read…all take up space in the math filled memory bank of a mother.
When God created mothers, he knew they would be the heart and soul of the family. He gave each one of us a strength for every season that we go through while raising a family. Some seasons require more math that others. Some seasons require more patience than others. Some seasons require you to give yourself more grace than normal. Some seasons even require you to love other people’s children as your own. Being a mother is a gift that you unwrap every single day with gratefulness, humility, and delight. May God continue to shine his light on all mothers on this Mother’s Day weekend. If you are blessed enough to still have your mom, I hope you take a minute to hug her tight and appreciate the many math problems she solved on your behalf.
“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.”
Proverbs 31:25-27
Reba Phelps
jreba.phelps@gmail.com