AN NJN EDITORIAL — One of the greatest joys of my life was the day that I found out I was going to be blessed with a child. Most children play house and dream of being a mommy one day, and I was no exception. But while growing up, my sister was much more of the “house playing” type of child, while I was more of the “football in the front yard” child. I always knew I would be a mom, but never gave it much more thought than that.

When that pregnancy test came back positive, my whole world changed. I immediately saw myself changing diapers, taking pictures of my child at the prom, going to graduations, brushing hair — the number of thoughts that run through your head in those moments is amazing.

This proved to be a short-lived happiness, as I had a miscarriage a few weeks later. My world was crushed and I felt like I must have been deemed an “unfit mom” by God. It was a tough time. But God is so faithful, and He saw fit, just a few months later, to bless me with yet another pregnancy that resulted in the birth of my daughter, Raygan.

Then, as if God were pulling a prank on me, I found out just under a year after that I would be having yet another bundle of joy in the form of my second daughter, Anna.

Life as a mom has it’s ups and downs, and they don’t always come in that order. There are days when you look at your children and wonder what you did to deserve such beautiful blessings in your life. How did you end up having the privilege of parenting these angels?

Then there are days when you want to scream, pull every stand of hair out of your head and check them into the nearest zoo, where you can just look at them behind the bars and breathe a sigh of relief.

Yes, parenting can put your emotions all over the map. Happiness when they hit their first home run in baseball; sadness when the other kids in school are picking on them; frustration when they refuse to pick up their toys and anger when they back talk and stomp away — the emotional pendulum creates a far reaching swing.

But when life starts to get in the way, it’s easy to push our children to the back burner. When other things require our attention, we sometimes take our eyes off of our family and start to stare at the other issues. Work can replace much of your children’s time, if you’re not careful. Social life, finances, pastimes and some friends can sneak in and begin to suck the life out of your relationship with your babies.

Yes, life can get in the way of the really important things. I find that it can be a struggle to keep all of my priorities in line. And although I often fail, my heart is with my daughters. At the end of the day, when the moon is out and everyone else is at their house, the only people who really need me, or probably really want me around, are my two little girls. They beg for their Bible story and all of the good-night kisses that we give (the Eskimo, butterfly, duck, fish and regular kisses). They are the most important people in the world to me.

Being a mom can be exhausting, stressful, unappreciated and unnerving. But it is also the only job you will ever have with so much love and devotion poured into it.

You may regret many things as you walk through this life, but being a mother will never be the regret. There is purpose and meaning to motherhood and if you lose everything you have, the life of your children can keep you going strong.

So for Mother’s Day, have a renewed sense of happiness that God has seen fit to bless you with that role. And if you are not a mother, then make sure that you take the time this Sunday and thank the mother in your life.

Whether it be your biological mom or not, the fact is that you’ve had mothering figures in your life and they deserve to be thanked, if only once a year.