“It’s Mama….”
Love Is Something That We Do – Thanksgiving 2020
Madison, Kenton, and Johnson
Thanksgiving 2020….
one we will always remember for the bad of it.
The mask wearing of it…
The social distancing…
The daily “Governor Beshear” updates
The frequent COVID-19 testing
The ICU beds full
The stadiums, coffee houses, schools, offices, and neighborhood playgrounds
EMPTY
2020 will be forever remembered as the year of the
Covid-19
Corona
virus
SARS-CoV-2
Wuhan, China
But must it?
Is there not more that we can take from this horrible, terrible, no good, very bad year?
Is it truly different from any other year? Or is it just that this year,
We all seemed to go through the bad together? At the same time? In so many of the same ways?
Will we always look bad saying,
“I remember well the year we had” and only see the bad?
Or will we use this opportunity to be the trigger for change?
*********
What if?
Instead of remembering the masks,
we remember the faces behind the masks.
The doctors, nurses, therapists, teachers?
The church song leaders,
The innocent children
The social needing teens
Our elderly parents, the neighbor’s grandmother 
********
What if?
Instead of remembering all that we gave up…
Surrendered…
Suffered through
And endured
We remembered the
Smile behind the masks
The eyes of kindness
The hands who showed compassion
What if we remembered those who took food to the hungry
Who filled pantries
And drove food across America so that you could have your click list filled?
What if we focused on the ways that
Love
Permeated through our nation in the midst of one of the greatest challenges in our lifetime?
No one really talks about the love that has been shown during this season of
COVID-19
WHY IS THAT?????
What is it about us that we can find the bad so easily
But cannot the good, the kind, the loving?
I want you to be different, Children
I want you to work hard to see the good in others, even when no good seems to be found
I want you to slow down in your life long enough to be that person who stops to help an elderly person walk across the street
To give up your seat to the pregnant mama
Who will bend down at eye level to the little child
And who will pay the Kroger cashier for the groceries for the person in front of you in the line when they run out of money
Babies….
Be that woman or man who listens to the patient sitting next to you at the doctor’s office who just lost their mother
And the one who puts away your cell phone so you can remember how beautiful is the voice of your husband or wife
Be purposeful in texting your Mama “I LOVE YOU’ for no reason
Who drives by Mama’s office just to give her a hug and kiss
And,
Driving down for Mother’s Day “kite flying”
It’s those little moments
That not only fill up my heart
But fill up the heart of others when you do them
It is why you are here
Living
Existing
I don’t make you children promises very often
Having learned long ago that promises are hard to keep
But I do promise this…..
If you only live to focus on what is in front of you and
Not WHO is in front of you….
You will never truly find the joy life offers….
You won’t
Because we were not put here for “what is in it for me”…..
Survival of the fittest may get you a longer life
But it will not leave you happy
That is not how God made us…
We are made to love
And it is in loving others that our greatest joy, peace,
and happiness will come…..
If I teach you nothing else in this life, I hope it is that….
Love God
Love One Another
And love in such a real and authentic way that
Others are able to see the love inside of you….
Love given doubles, triples, quadruples…
It just does…
It is magical that way….
Love truly does conquer all…
Amor omnia vincit
So, work on that….
Be that conqueror…the one who is different in good times and bad
Be the woman, man, and man
Who, during the worst pandemic of your lifetime are known for being
Loving
Kind
Compassionate
Passionate
Generous
And
Present
S L O W down in your life to focus on what is truly
Important
And, in that, find the people…
You may collect up many things in your life, but you will not take them with you when you leave it..
But that love inside you….
It is what you keep
My Mama’s prayer is that when you look back over the years and remember
2020
The Year of the Worldwide Pandemic
You remember the 
Love
I Love You
As Only Your Mama Can,
Mama
