There is no more influential or powerful role
on earth than a mother's. As significant as political, military,
educational, or religious
public figures may be, none can compare to the impact made by mothers.
Their words are never fully forgotten, and the memory of their presence
lasts a lifetime. Abraham Lincoln was right: "No one is poor
who had a godly mother."
(Zeke Moore, The Christian Teacher)
...Some may not be aware that there are a number of origins to Mother's
Day, the oldest one going back to 1870 when Julia Ward Howe, better
known as the writer of the words of The Battle Hymn of the Republic
('Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord') actually
invented Mother's Day. She did so as a lasting protest against the
sort of terrible carnage she had witnessed while tending the wounded
in the American Civil War. What happened was that she called together
a general congress of women, from countries all over the world, who
would gather to promote the alliance of the different countries.
Her cry was:
"Arise, all women who have hearts. Say
firmly: we women of one country will be too tender of those of
another country to allow
our sons to injure theirs."
Because of her appeal, there started to gather a group of women
who had the will and the heart to be nurturers of peace.
Another tradition goes back about 100 years ago when a woman named
Anna Jarvis was concerned about the tendency of children when they
had grown up and had moved away from home to fail to visit their
parents or send them letters. So she identified a day each year to
remember them, especially mothers.