she exudes love & kindness

meet my mother

the woman who has raised me, loved me, befriended me, & guided me.

she's an amazing woman & the Lord has blessed me to call her my mother.

she's also the kindest woman i know! i've been blessed to have an example in my lifetime that i feel is rare in this day & age. this woman will bend over backward to anything that is needed, whether it's at home, at her church, with her friends, or for a total stranger... and i think what amazes me the most is how humble she is and how she completes everything she does with a smile on her face.

one topic of conversation that mom & i have discussed over the years are the homeless. those people, for whatever unfortunate reason, have found themselves down & out, no place to live, no place to call home. mom volunteers with my father at their uptown charlotte church that partners with the room in the inn ministry, housing & feeding the homeless on cold nights during the winter. she has told me some of the greatest stories from their nights with the homeless. our discussions usually also tend to end up at how quickly we've both felt in the past to pass judgement to that man or woman on the street corner when we pass them by or how sometimes our sinful human instinct is to ignore these people, but we've come to a point where we've really questioned that, she's really questioned her response to these people.

Christ calls us to love these people without a hint of judgement. Mom told me yesterday that she has started buying a few $10 gift cards from the grocery store when she goes each week. she now keeps these in the console of her car & when she comes to a light & someone approaches her, she gets excited for the them to come.

she said the other day she was at a light & saw a man with a sign. he began walking her way & she thought "yeah, come right on over here" she rolled down her window & as she handed the man the $10 grocery gift card, she said she saw the shock, surprise & gratefullness all across his face. in that moment she felt led to tell the man, "you know God loves your, right?" he proceeded, "yes ma'am... he allowed me to wake up this morning. you see, the man with no shoes felt sorry for himself until he saw the man with no feet" my mom was overwhelmed with emotion as the light turned green & she continued on her way. she said that in that moment as that man approached her car, armed with her $10 gift cards, all she felt was excitment. all possible judgement & questions of whether to ignore this man never even entered into her mind because she had chosen to love without condition.

what a beautiful example of Christ's unconditional love for us.

unconditional love... the world could use a lot more of it :)