Rohit : Hi, I saw you in the church last Sunday but could not meet you after the service as I had to leave immediately for an urgent work.
Roshan : Oh, I see
Rohit : I witnessed an amusing incident in the church, I saw a mother who had come with her naughty little son who must be about 3 years old.
Roshan : Lot of kids come to our church, the parents have a tough time controlling them
Rohit : The mother told “Son, do you know why I am telling you not to make noise in the church?” pat came his reply “I know, we should not disturb the sleeping people”
Roshan:(lol)Ha, Ha, Ha
Rohit : I appreciate the keen sense of observation that the little fellow had.
Roshan : It makes me very sad when I see lot of people in our churches who are spiritually asleep.
Rohit : I think we need lot of such kids in our churches to wake them up. (lol)
Rahim : Hi, guys, what are you laughing about?
Roshan : He was just narrating an amusing incident about a mother and her little son.
Rahim : When you told mother, I remember a quote by Dr.Abdul Kalam “When the mother smiles, the family smiles, when family smiles, society & nation smiles”
Rohit : Look, Pooja & Preeti are coming
Pooja & Preeti : Hi guys
Rahim : I am planning to go to the market to buy a gift for my mother
Roshan : Is the gift for her birthday?
Rahim : No, for mother’s day
Roshan : When is mother’s day ?
Rahim : It is on the second Sunday of the month of May i.e on 13th this year.
Preeti : I don’t like the idea of celebrating mother’s day on one particular day. It has become very commercial; the people in business are just using the day to improve their sales.
Pooja : Actor Abhishek Bachhan in a interview to a magazine said that we don’t need a special day to say how much you love your mom or tell her what she means to you. But he does add that it’s always good to make her feel special and thank her for everything that she’s done for us
Rohit : How did this mother’s day start?
Rahim : A woman called Miss.Anna Jarvis in the U.S.A after she had lost her mother kept sending letters to public officials for years to set aside one day as mother’s day. The American President Mr.Woodrow Wilson finally proclaimed in the year 1914 that 2nd Sunday of May would be celebrated as Mother’s day.
Pooja : The day doesn’t have it origin in India. Traditionally Indians have always honoured their mothers. From childhood I was taught that Mother is the first god, then comes Father, the third is Guru or teacher and the fourth is the actual God.
Preeti : I don’t like this attitude of the people in our country. We say mother is the first god, then why do we kill future mothers?
Pooja : What do you mean future mothers? I don’t understand.
Preeti : All mothers are born into this world as tiny little girl babies. The girl child is still not accepted in many parts of our country. Many are killed after birth, or abandoned; many are simply made to feel unwelcome in this world.
Rohit : I think, it is because of ignorance, if there is improvement in literacy levels then we could solve the problem.
Roshan : You are wrong my friend, Indians take this dirty practice even to overseas countries. I am sure you would agree that Indians in England would be literate. I remember reading a survey which said that the sex ratio of girls among Indians & other south Asian nationalities in England is less because of their preference of the boy child over the girl child. Sex determination test is not banned in England and Indians make full use of the facility.
Rahim : I think it is because of poverty that people show a preference for the male child.
Roshan : It is my opinion that the rich in India show more preference for the male child than the poor, though there may be many worthy exceptions. It is thought that the male child is the rightful heir of the assets, business etc.
Preeti : To become a mother you have to pay dowry
Pooja : You are too pessimistic, things are changing in our country. This change is portrayed even in the movies & serials that we watch.
Rohit : According to the Bible God created the first mother Eve, because she and her husband disobeyed God, sin entered our world along with disease, pain and death, that is why we are seeing so many evil practices. The world is in the grip of sin and needs a deliverer. Jesus came to this world to deliver us from bondage to sin.
Roshan : God says “Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you”
Rohit : That means God’s love for us is greater than mother’s love and hence God should be the first in the order of respect & honour.
Roshan : Some people take this to another extreme, they use God as an excuse for not honouring or helping their mothers. They are so busy in their religion i.e service of God that they don’t bother about their mother. Many such mothers’s end up in old age homes and spend lonely & bitter lives. The Bible not only commands us to honour our parents it also promises that those who honour them will have long life.
Preeti : There are some people who think that a woman is only a child producing machine.
Rahim : I hope you are not referring to Muslims. I know lot of people in Islam who value their mother’s highly.
Pooja : I agree, look at the Khan’s of Bollywood, they value the women in their life and they are people of exemplary character.
Rahim : I think Christians also worship mother Mary as God.
Roshan : According to the Bible she is not God, she is called Blessed of all woman. I believe she was a surrogate mother & not a biological mother of Jesus. But she was a humble woman fully committed to doing God’s will. She was ready to accept the problems that she would face in society if it is announced that she, a virgin has became pregnant. Nobody would be ready to believe her. She is a model for all mothers.
Rahim : I remember Dr.A.P J Kalam telling how his mother would sacrifice her own ‘chappati’ so that Kalam as a growing child could eat it. We all know the sacrifices our mothers have made.
Rohit : They not only carried us in their womb for 10 months, they went through intense pain in delivery for us.
Roshan : Whatever success I have achieved in this life, I owe it to my mother, she taught me to seek God first, she has comforted me, she has encouraged me, she has motivated me and above all she has prayed without ceasing for me.
Rahim : Mothers are very protective, they even know of dangers that the child will go through in advance. We can never adequately give back to our mothers for the love they have showered on us.
Roshan : Whether we agree to observe mother’s day or not is immaterial. It is necessary to show gratitude to our mothers. This day provides an opportunity for that.
Rohit : I am going to cook for my mother on mother’s day. I will learn the recipes of some of the dishes that she likes and prepare it for her.
Preeti : I hope it would be edible. Why do you want to experiment your cooking skills with your mother. I would rather teach my mother some skills like browsing the internet, using the mobile phone more effectively, managing the bank account etc. so that she is not dependent on others.
Pooja : I am going to take my mother to a movie.
Preeti : Do ensure to take her to a movie which she would find comfortable watching with you. The numbers of such movies are coming down these days.
Roshan : I will help her in household work and I will give her greeting card designed & tailor-made for her. I will assure her that I will follow God with the same devotion that she has done.
Rahim : On the eve of mother’s day let us resolve that we would honour our mothers all the days of their life including their old age. Let us make our mothers smile.
Rohit : Let us pray and commit ourselves to God that we would never do anything to harm the mother. Let us repent and ask God for forgiveness for being indifferent to the social evils that we as Indians are indulging in and pray that evils like female infanticide, dowry etc. would wane in our country. Let us pray that women would find their rightful place in society and that people would find deliverance from sins through Jesus Christ.
Roshan : One final thought before we leave, Let us think of one needy mother may be widow, or lonely or in old age and also consider helping them, if not now at least in the near future. Every Indian would start doing then India would definitely smile.
Rohit : I am hearing everybody talking about Second Coming of Jesus Christ these days. I am eager to know about it.
Roshan : We’ll discuss when we met next time. O.K bye to all
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