A Big Thankless Job.

My friend Tricia has two pre-teen boys. Her husband passed away several years ago and when I met up with her today in McDonalds her boys were playing their iPad games with grumpy faces, and she gave me this really exhausted look.

She told me what had happened that morning and I HAD NO IDEA PARENTING COULD BE THAT HARD, especially singlehandedly!!!. Everything had just fallen apart but she still had to hold it together for two little lives whose present and future well-beings still depend almost entirely on her.

Well, it turned out the boys wanted to go see the movie Minions but decided they didn’t want to do it alone. Tricia just didn’t have it in her to watch that movie so they asked if I could see it with them. I thought, Sure! And it’ll give poor Tricia some alone time to recover. I knew from time to time she needs a couple hours to herself, like I do.

But she was SO grateful for me simply watching a movie with her boys. She was lavishing so much gratitude on me that as I got into my car to drive to the theater I was thinking my reward must surely be inflating in heaven.

But then Tricia does stuff like this for her kids all the time! And I realized that Moms make huge sacrifices every day and they are simply expected to do it.

Thanklessly!

The kids don’t usually say thanks. I’ve just heard kids say stuff like, “No, I didn’t want a quarter pounder! I wanted a cheeseburger!” Or “Where are my Legos?! Mom! Whenever you clean the house I can’t find my Legos!” And the mom goes back to do more work, unthanked and often insulted.

So I just want to say, Moms, thank you. You rock. You guys sacrifice a thousand times a day but you don’t get thanked because the little people, and big people like me, just expect it of you.

You remember what Jesus told folks who got praised for their good deeds on earth? He said “You will not receive your reward in heaven because you have already received it on Earth.”

Moms, I think you will have the biggest mansions in heaven.

And I bet you’ll never have to clean up Legos.

Checkout Tricia’s blog and books about losing her husband and raising two boys here!

Raw Spoon, 7-18-15