Invisable Mother

A friend posted this for me, and I had to share it!!!

The Invisible Mother...
It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will
walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking,
"Can't you see I'm on the phone?"
Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or
even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The
invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie
this? Can you open this?
Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is
it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel"
Some days I'm a crystal ball; "Where's my other sock?, Where's my phone?, What's for
dinner?"
I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history,
music and literature -but now, they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen
again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!
One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from
England . She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about
the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so
well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when
she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this." It was a book
on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read
her inscription: "With admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."
In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for
me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:
1.) No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.
2.) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.
3.) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
4.) The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.
A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was
being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and
asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be
covered by the roof, No one will ever see it." And the workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does."
No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, no
hockey/soccer/piano/Scout/school meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to
notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it
will become.
I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show
up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be
on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our
lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.
When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from
college for Thanksgiving, "My Mom gets up at four in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then
she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would
mean I'd built a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is
anything more to say to his friend, he'd say, "You're gonna love it there!"

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one
day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the
beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.


Share this with all the Invisible Moms you know...I just did.
To all the wonderful mothers out there... God bless and keep you!