How are “Tower” and “Mother” alike?

I typed the word “Tower” into my Google search. More than twenty-one pages of pictures came up! There were towers of every description, the Mile High Tower, the Eiffel Tower and an old landmark, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There were towers carved by nature’s deft hand, such as the Devil’s Tower, towers from all over the world. The description says, “Towers are tall structures almost always taller than they are wide (almost always?).” There are radio and TV signal towers, cell phone towers (which neighborhoods sometimes resist). There are smaller tower type structures called “Lighthouses”, getting closer now. The one type of tower I didn’t see mentioned was a tower that, in most of our lives, are towers of light, strength and an unchangeable love. It is the tower of hope, encouragement and help, it is our Mother. My mother has been the source of all the above-mentioned elements in the lives of my siblings and me, but most of all to my dad. There have been times when I saw daddy, back bent from working all day physically building our church, come in so tired he could hardly put one foot in front of the other. A few moments of mother hovering over him and admiring how hard he had worked then placing a big plate of food in front of him and he was a new man. She is fiercely loyal to the ones she loves never wanting to believe anything bad about them. For awhile when some family members made the national news, she firmly denounced the stories saying that she had been told they weren’t true, so that meant they were all just lies perpetrated by jealous people. When, down the road, the reality hit her that there was truth in them, she nearly broke under the grief of it all. But she is resilient and pops back like the clown we had as children that you could knock all the way to the floor and it would pop up, smiling! Some verses from Proverbs 31 says A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds. Her husband trusts her without reserve, and never has reason to regret it. Never spiteful, she treats him generously all her life long. Her children respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise:” Many women have done wonderful things, but you’ve outclassed them all!” Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades. The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God. Give her everything she deserves! Festoon her life with praises! Moving from church to church, visiting the sick, cleaning church toilets and helping cook dinners to raise money, she has done it all. Without her, life for us would have been a lot more difficult. God used woman to bring us His own Son in the flesh. In Judges we read about Deborah, a woman who actually judged Israel and without whom Barak refused to go into battle! Women are the “kingpin” (the most important person in a group or place) in a lot of our social endeavors, and for all the good we do, without guidance from the Holy Spirit we are nothing. Proverbs 14:1The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. When I originally wrote this it wasn’t Mother’s Day nor was it her birthday, but I received a gentle reminder from someone whom I love and respect greatly, that I rarely mention her, while I often bring up things my dad has done. I declare here and now that (and he would be the first person to agree with this) without her by his side, his ministry would not have reached the wonderful level that it has reached in their 70 years of marriage! Pray for our Mothers and Happy Mother’s Day to you!