[Before beginning, another way to look at the verse is like this: A good and faithful mother may not see the fruit of her love right away, but one day her children will look back with love, see how much she mattered, and remember her love.]

There are questions mothers carry quietly, tucked into the corners of their hearts. They don’t always say them out loud, but they feel them deeply. This is a conversation about the tender ache behind the words every loving mother thinks at least once: Could I have done more?

Me:    God… I keep wondering if I could have done more.

God:   Why does that question stay with you?

Me:     Because I remember the moments I wish I could redo. The things I didn’t know. The mistakes I made without meaning to.

God:    You remember your perceived shortcomings more clearly than your gifts.

Me:      But what if those shaped them? What if my mistakes mattered more than my love?

God:    Your love mattered more than you know. And My grace covered more than you realize.

Me:      I still feel like I should have been better, stronger, wiser.

God:    You did what you could with what you knew, in the season you were in, with the strength you had. A mother’s love is measured by faithfulness, not flawlessness.

Me:     But what about the things I missed?

God:   I was there in the moments you missed. I filled the spaces you could not reach.

Me:     So, You were guiding me even when I didn’t see it?

God:    I guided you gently, step by step, carrying what you could not carry yourself. I have guided you the way a shepherd guides the ones he treasures, gently, patiently, never rushing, always carrying what you could not. {Note: Remember this one, I;ve always loved it https://www.praywithme.com/footprints-prayer.html ]

Me:     Then why do I still feel this ache?

God:    Because love remembers. But love also needs rest. Let your heart rest in Me.

Me:     So I don’t have to keep asking if I could have done more?

God:    No. Because I was working in you, through you, and beyond you, even when you didn’t see it.

This Conversation is not meant as God’s literal speech. It reflects how Scripture portrays God’s heart toward mothers who look back on their years of loving, guiding, and giving, and quietly wonder if it was enough.

A Mother’s Day Reflection

For the ones who wonder if their love was enough.

Being a mom can feel thankless at times. So much of what a mother does is unseen, uncelebrated, and unnoticed, at least for now. The fruits of her love often don’t show up for years, sometimes decades.

And in the quiet moments, she wonders if any of it mattered. But God sees what others miss. God guides mothers the way a gentle shepherd guides the ones who need the most care, not with force, but with tenderness, patience, and steady hands. He knows the weight they carry, the choices they make, the tears they hide, the strength they borrow. And He whispers to every mother’s heart:

“You were never meant to walk motherhood alone. I guided you gently, step by step, carrying what you could not carry yourself.”

When she looks back and sees only what she feels were errors, He sees the love. When she remembers the moments, she wishes she could redo, He remembers the faithfulness. When she fears she wasn’t enough, He reminds her, “I have guided you the way a shepherd guides the ones he treasures, gently, patiently, never rushing, always carrying what you could not.”

A mother’s love is not measured by perfection. It is measured by presence, by faithfulness, by the quiet ways she showed up again and again. And God was there in every moment, filling the spaces she couldn’t reach, strengthening the places she felt weak, and carrying what she could not carry herself.

This reflection is not meant as God’s literal speech where there are quotations marks It expresses how Scripture portrays God’s heart toward mothers who look back on their years of loving, guiding, and giving, and quietly wondering if it was enough-it was!

On this date in 1961, Alan Shepard made history with a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7. Later, he would return to command Apollo 14 in 1971, making him the only one of the original astronauts to land on the Moon.

Unlike the gals doing it earlier this year in their form-fitting blue suits, it was a little different for Shepard. He didn’t have make-up artists getting him ready to prance in front of cameras or to enter the capsule. His capsule was so small that the height requirement for astronauts was 5’11” or less just to fit in the cramped space. He had to wait several hours from when he woke up until liftoff. Is that important? In a way, it is.

The flight had been postponed several times. The United States would have launched the first man if not for the delays. In the interim, Russia beat us to it. And it was almost delayed on the day of the launch. Nature called as Shepard sat in Freedom 7, forcing him to urinate into his suit.

Medical sensors attached to it to track the astronaut’s condition in flight were turned off to prevent them from shorting out. The urine pooled in the small of his back, where his undergarment absorbed it.

But we learn by trial and error. After Shepard’s flight, the space suit was modified, and by the time of Gus Grissom’s flight two months later, it included a built-in liquid waste collection feature.

I learned three funny things researching this, one that made me do a literal LOL. The first was Shepard, who later recalled his wife Louise’s response when he told her that she had her arms around the man who would be the first man in space: “Who let a Russian in here?”

The second was on May 18, 1959, when the seven astronauts gathered at Cape Canaveral to watch their first rocket launch, which was similar to the one that was to carry them into orbit. It spectacularly exploded a few minutes after liftoff, lighting up the night sky. The astronauts were, of course, stunned. Shepard turned and said to John Glenn, “Well, I’m glad they got that out of the way.”

My favorite quote was from a book about him, recalling an interview. When reporters asked Shepard what he thought as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he replied, “The fact that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.”

This is a fascinating story. Most are aware of the first story, but there’s more to the story. Taken in 1945, this photo became famous. Fast forward 76 years, and the question for today: Would this be considered sexual assault resulting in a lawsuit against the United States Navy and a criminal charge against the sailor? The initial questions are the legal ones that interest me.  I’m interested in it as an attorney.

But I’m adding a second photo now because I found out something I didn’t know initially. While the sailor and woman have been identified, the second picture, which is a close-up of another taken by the same photographer, shows a woman named Rita Petry. Rita was there to meet the sailor, George Mendonsa, for a date. They later married. Still, a shaky start to a date. Doing the math, they would marry about two years later.

As an aside, the nurse who was not really a nurse but has long been identified as such is Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant. Greta’s parents died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Back to Rita, through 2015, the last time I could find anything on this, she and George had been married for 68 years. There were other sailors claiming to be the kisser (and a couple of women claiming to be the kissee), but George and Greta met years later and confirmed it was the two of them, so I’ll go with it being George and Greta despite the controversy simply because I like the story and it does have credibility.

Greta later said, “It wasn’t a romantic event.” It was just an event of ‘thank God the war is over’ kind of thing.” She repeatedly emphasized it was a jubilant, impulsive celebration in the moment of victory, not a love story. She and Mendonsa later became friends, appeared together at events, and exchanged Christmas cards, but she never framed the kiss as a mutual romance.

There are people who take offense, probably the ones who tried to ban Baby It’s Cold Outside. It has to be put into the context of the time, August 1945? And the aftermath needs to be considered and their later friendship after reuniting.

They reenacted the kiss in 1980 for a Life magazine reunion in Times Square on the 35th anniversary of V-J Day. 

The photo was featured in Life Magazine, but it was not the only celebratory kiss that day.

A true sportsman, he put the team over himself. Great ballplayer and man.

On this day in 1939, Lou Gehrig played his 2,130th consecutive game. Soon after, he went to New York Yankees manager Joe McCarthy and asked to be benched. Gehrig later told reporters, “I haven’t been a bit of good to the team since the season started.” Even as his strength faded, he refused to make excuses or put himself above the club.

After extensive testing at the Mayo Clinic, doctors confirmed he was suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The Iron Horse — who had seemed unbreakable — suddenly faced a diagnosis that would end his career and change his life forever. Teammates later said he handled the news with the same quiet dignity he showed every day on the field.

What followed was one of the most iconic moments in sports history — his farewell on July 4th, where he delivered the “Luckiest Man” speech that still echoes today. It remains a moment where courage, gratitude, and grace met on a baseball diamond.

Farewell, including the Luckiest Man speech

A reflection on the fear that rises when the world grows loud, and the quiet call to speak with peace in a time when words feel heavy.

There are moments when the tone of the world grows sharp, and people fear what heated rhetoric might awaken in those who are already fragile. This is a conversation about the quiet fear of escalation, not from our own words, but from the atmosphere around us, and the truth that God calls us to speak with peace in a world that feels overheated.

Me:    God, the world feels loud lately. Too loud.

God:  What is it that troubles you?

Me:    The way people talk. The anger. The heat. The way words can spark a fire.

God:  And what do you fear those sparks might do?

Me:    That someone unstable might take them the wrong way. That someone already hurting might hear permission instead of caution.

God:  You are not wrong to notice the danger of a heated atmosphere.

Me:    So it is not just me.

God:  No. People sense when the emotional temperature rises. They feel the tension even when they cannot name it.

Me:    But I do not want to add to it. I do not want anything I say to be misunderstood.

God:  Then speak with the tone I have given you. Calm. Steady. Grounded. Your voice does not carry the fire you fear.

Me:    But what about the voices that do.

God:  Every generation has them. Words can stir, inflame, confuse or embolden. But they can also heal, steady and guide.

Me:    So what am I supposed to do in a climate like this.

God:  Guard your heart. Guard your tone. And trust Me with the rest.

Me:    But what if things escalate.

God:  Then your peace becomes even more necessary. Light is most visible when the world grows dark.

Me:    So You are saying my voice still matters.

God:  A calm voice matters most when the world is loud.

Me:   And You are not asking me to fix the whole atmosphere.

God:  I am asking you to be faithful in your corner of it.

The fear of escalation is not new. Scripture has always taught that words carry weight and that tone shapes the world around us. Proverbs says that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). James says the tongue is a small thing but speaks of the enormous damage it can do-a great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark. (James 3:5–6). Proverbs also says that a gentle answer can turn away wrath, but harsh words can stir up anger (Proverbs 15:1). Long before our moment, God understood the way speech can steady or unsettle, calm or inflame, heal or harm.

People today are not only worried about arguments or disagreements. They are worried about the atmosphere created by heated words. They are worried about what the wrong person might hear at the wrong moment. They are worried about how quickly anger spreads and how easily fear can take root. Scripture does not tell us to silence ourselves. It tells us to speak with wisdom. It tells us to guard our tone. It tells us that peace has a voice, and that voice matters most when the world feels loud.

For those who haven’t guessed, this about the vitriolic rhetoric in the political world we see today. I know some may see this as hypocritical, but I stumble in this too. James says we all do. This is not a warning I give from a distance, but a truth God is shaping in me. 

This Conversation is not meant as God’s literal speech. It reflects how Scripture portrays God’s heart toward us when we are troubled by the weight of words and the temperature of the world.