Mama and I lived many miles apart, when I knew
I'd be visiting her I'd feel fluttering in my heart.
Our visits were infrequent not by choice but necessity,
as we neared her house the excitement would grow inside of me.
She being elderly and ill had to sit in her chair,
and because of disk injury, bending over her caused me fear.
So I'd enter her room and quickly fall on my knees,
"Hello Mama give me a big hug please".
Sometimes those hugs would cause my neck some pain,
but not for even one instant would I ever complain.
For over three years this is the way we would greet each other,
nothing was more precious to me that those hugs from my mother.
Mama's passed on now. No more of those visits will there be,
but those hugs we shared still bring happiness to me.
Any time I miss her and feel pangs of sadness or regret,
I simply recall those hugs they still warm my heart yet.
The love and caring those hugs conveyed to me,
are still here inside where they will forever be.
One day we'll all be together once more,and we'll be able
to hug standing up, no need to kneel on the floor.
Until that hug which is in the future, a date to us unknown, I'll treasure
Mama's hugs in my memory with any other love I've known.
by Barbara Philbrook
What I Shall Savor
Going home for eternity has been on my mind,
and what I shall savor is a surprise I now find.
I used to think when I get home there is much I'd want to forget,
but I now realize that is something I'd regret.
You see I've lived many days in agony and pain,
and once thought when I got home, I'd never want to remember that again.
But I have come to the startling conclusion,
that I was living in a mistaken illusion.
You see I have this blessing I hadn't stop to count,
I have extra reason to praise God an even greater amount.
There are people who have never had to pray,
to have the strength to get through a particular day.
There are some who have never had a day with pain in it,
who never needed God's strength to get through minute by minute.
Some who don't know what it is not to function normally,
who have never had to depend on others entirely.
What a joy to remember when we are home at last,
to be able to praise God that it is all in the past.
To be able to share with the heavenly host,
that God provided for me when I needed Him the most.
To be able to explain and convey, how God got me
through my most excruciating day.
Something not every person will be able to tell,
I know it's His praises I'll constantly want to yell.
Yes what I shall savor and praise throughout eternity,
is how how my God strengthened and cared for me.
by Barbara Philbrook
What Makes Me Proud
What makes me proud about my past, is not my anger
or shouting I pray those memories don't last.
It's not the laws I enforced in trying to shape my children,
trying to teach them to be good, not to sin.
It's not the punishments I had to enforce,
or the explaining I did till my voice got hoarse.
It's not the tears I shed at the end of each day,
as I feared I'd handled some incident the wrong way.
It's none of these and I'll tell you why, though these
were my sincerest effort, my heartfelt try.
What makes me proud is when my children come to me,
to ask me to pray with them for any difficulty.
This shows me I've set them on the right track,they know
God is the one who will give them what they lack.
They know I'm not perfect and made mistakes,
but calling on God to make it right is all it takes.
What makes me proud is I led them in the right direction,
because calling on God leads towards perfection.
by Barbara Philbrook
