Happy birthday Ma!

(Yesterday was my Mom's 51st birthday and this post is dedicated to her.I wrote this exactly a year ago for her 50th birthday)

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. ~Abraham Lincoln

If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been.  ~Robert Braul

I call her 'Amma ‘ and my brother called her ‘Me’(Short for mummy).In my 22 years of life’s journey with my Mom I can say SHE is no ordinary woman!Well,Its her 50th birthday today(Sep 23,2010)and I am so proud she is mine!!

Life has never been easy for her and I still wonder how she managed the house, ministry and the family simultaneously.A typical day for her  would begin like this-She would wake up at 4.00am and spend her quiet time with the Lord till 6 am..family prayer till 6.30(which means that we can never stay in bed after 6!)and then off she'd go to the kitchen(She is an excellent cook by the way!). By 7.15 breakfast and lunch would be ready on the table and after making sure that we've had our breakfast and have taken our lunch she'd rush to work at 8! As soon as she came home from work she would run to the slums in the area to take Sunday school for the kids there/conduct a prayer meeting. She would return home and make us dinner and our family time is the one thing that I’ve always enjoyed and that would sometimes extend after midnight! The nights she spent with us when we were younger  telling us amazing stories from the Bible is still so vivid in my memory.She definitely was and still is a great story teller! She works tirelessly from dawn till dusk ,making sure everyone is loved and cared for! Amazing woman!Ain’t she??

She’s not only my biological mother but also my spiritual mother (To my brother and dad too!). She loves the Lord with all her heart and lives out her faith. She forgives quickly ,never holds a grudge and I just love listening to her stories of faith even though I have heard it a million times before!I wonder how many are blessed with godly and loving parents.I sure am!The tears ,the prayers,the energy and the effort that she put into bringing us up did bear fruit . She raised her family differently and  the difference  that she raised us  with was Christ.All that was said in Ragil’s funeral(my only brother of 24 yrs who passed away unexpectedly in an accident) is evidence.She always wanted her kids to be firebrands for the Lord.She is my critic ,my greatest teacher ,a source of inspiration and  blessing not only to me but to everyone who has come her way!!

At 48,she responded to God’s call for full time ministry and God has blessed her ministry in leaps and bounds.I admire her oratory and writing skills-skills that have been used by God to touch the lives of many!It’s been 3 months since Ragi left us to be with the Lord and her faith has strengthened all of us through these difficult times. If Ragi was here he would definitely agree with all that I've said.I can go on and on but words just can't contain her. She is indeed an ideal mother that every daughter could be proud of and look up to.I only wish and pray that God may grant her many more birthdays and use her mightily for His glory.Happy happy birthday ma!Luv you!!

''Her children arise and call her blessed;  her husband also, he praises her:
 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;   but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised''. Proverbs 31:28,30