To all mums everywhere, have a lovely day – you deserve it!

DAVID JONES on how central to every home and family is a mother’s love

MANY a mum will be lavished with flowers, gifts and breakfast in bed this coming Sunday as it will be mum’s special day.

There will be cards and greetings, with local florists in overdrive as children and grandchildren, especially those who are unable to come home, remind mum or gran or even those who have taken on a mothering role how much they are cherished and loved.

All these expressions and love and gratitude make this day special, which is also a day of quiet remembrance and thanksgiving for the lovely memories of mothers who are no longer with us.

The tradition of Mothering Sunday goes back many centuries when in Lent all who were working for the landed gentry were encouraged to return to their mother church to give thanks to God for their upbringing in the Christian faith.

A special day in the church calendar when not only thanks were given for the church where faith was nurtured but a day when the love and devotion of family and home were celebrated as families reunited.

Central to every home and family is a mother’s love, which has brought us to the Mothering Sunday we continue to celebrate in this very special season.

Jesus, of course, knew the security of a loving home. From his birth, he was cared for within a family where there would have been all the trials and blessings of domestic life.

Mothering Sunday also reminds us that the church is a family of where we are all, regardless of age or background, a part. Jesus’s ministry was one of love and compassion, reaching out to the stranger and the outcast, calling his disciples by name and being moved to heal and restore.

The Apostle Paul says that the most eloquent preaching is meaningless if we do not love and serve one another as Jesus did.

A neighbour who needs to know we are there, a phone call to someone recently bereaved, and similar acts of kindness can make a difference. May we always, as Paul says, seek the most ‘excellent’ way – the way of love – the best way of all, the way our mothers taught us.

To all mums everywhere, have a lovely day – you deserve it!