Her Eyes

"Where did she get her beautiful blue eyes?"

People ask this about my daughters all of the time. I usually look at them (with MY OWN blue eyes) and say, "My mother-in-law has beautiful blue eyes too." Then I smile and walk away. Sometimes laughing at myself. Sometimes laughing at the stupidity of the question. But always laughing. I have to admit it would be really fun to mess with someone the next time I hear that. Like, "Oh my gosh!!! How the HECK did that happen?!?" I mean, ask a stupid question...get a stupid answer.

Because eye-color is something you can't get on your own. It's inherited. And, even though I don't understand genetics at all, I know that two brown-eyed parents don't (usually) bear a blue-eyed child.

I didn't get the color of my eyes from my mom. She's got brown ones. But there are other things about her eyes that she gave to me.

Like her eye for finding a way to help others in times of need. While I was growing up, my mom was always making food for people who were in some kind of need. Whether it was having a new baby or a death in the family or someone recovering from surgery. She has always had a knack for finding a way to help. And she passed that on to me.

And, although I certainly did not inherit physical eye-characteristics from my mother-in-law, there are things in her eyes that I long to acquire.

Like the way she sees life. Differently. As if looking through the eyes of a child, she is always able to make up a fun new game to play. Or make special crafts out of recycled trash.

That's why moms matter. Because not only do they (sometimes) give us our eye-color, they give us the tools we need in order to look through those eyes and see what we need to see. Life as they see it. By using their eyes, they teach us to use them too.

And now it's my turn. To teach my two blue-eyed wonders how to look through the blue and see life.

Lord, help me to teach them to see as You see. Give me eyes to see what You do and the wisdom to show it to them.

Join me today in linking up with my awesome friend, Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama.  She always has such beautiful thoughts on life and motherhood.  She's asking the question "Why do moms matter?"  And, well, you guessed it.  I think one of the reasons moms matter is that they teach us how to see.