Dirty hands and chipped polish

Growing up as an early teen, I sometimes wondered why my mom would not take the time to get her hair styled daily.  Why there were many days when she wore minimal, if any, makeup.  She wore polish, and often it was chipped.  Why doesn't she just take the time to repaint it? And her hands were callased and after long hours in the garden, or helping dad work on the car, they seemed stained with oil and dirt.

Mom kept a rather large vegetable garden to feed her family healthy food; and the surplus of the result of this garden was often delivered to neighbors and friends.  I remember once when we delivered a bag full of fresh veggies to a single parent at church; this friend cried when we handed it to her.  She stood at her front door and wept.  When the tears finally stopped, she told my mom she was out of money, groceries and no gas in her car.  She wasn't sure what she was going to feed her children for dinner then she smiled and said, "But that's changed, tonight we will have vegetable soup."

This was the day when my mom taught me true sacrifice.  You see my mom had a $100 bill in her purse.  This $100 had a purpose, a dream for it.  She was saving it to buy this leather jacket she had her eye on.  It was black, with fringe off the arms (in late 80's this was cool!).  This was one of those things we would drive by the store, stop in, she would try it on...and simply say to it, "I'll be back."  We would both laugh.  She was $40 away from having enough to buy it.

So to my surprise without an inkling of hesitation, she told her friend to get her shoes on, volunteered me to stay with her children, and took her friend to the store in her car.  Along the way, they filled up her tank.  When they returned, we were able to fill the cabinets with groceries. 

That day, my mom taught me about sacrifice, service and truly loving each other.  She could preach to me all day long on how to be a good person; but it was the moments she wasn't talking about life, when she was just doing life that I learned more than she could ever say.  Since that day, every time I've seen my mom's stained hands I remember that day.  The day I decided I want to be that kind of mommy when I grow up.  Happy Mother's Day mom!