Has the True Sentiment Gone Out of Mother's Day?

Mary Baldwin College alumna Anna Jarvis was the driving force behind the creation of Mother’s Day. But she would not be pleased at all with Mother’s Day as it is celebrated in 2009, according to a source at her alma mater.

“Miss Jarvis thought Mother’s Day should be a day you spend with your mother, or a day when you do something special for her like fix her dinner or repair her broken stairs,” says William Pollard, archivist at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA. “It was not supposed to be a day where you buy her something.”

Pollard says Jarvis wanted to keep Mother’s Day non-commercial--a battle she knew she had lost by the time of her death in 1948.

To understand how the day became nationally celebrated it’s important to know a bit about Anna Jarvis. She was graduated from Augusta Female Seminary, which is now Mary Baldwin College, in 1883 and moved back home with her parents. In 1905, Anna’s mother passed away. After her mother’s death, Jarvis spent years sending letters to public officials urging them to set aside a day to honor mothers.

In 1914, that day came. President Woodrow Wilson, whose birthplace was just across the street from Mary Baldwin College, signed the proclamation formally establishing Mother’s Day.

Over the years, however, Anna Jarvis became bitter with the commercialization of Mother’s Day.

She has been quoted as saying: “Mother’s Day has nothing to do with candy. Candy is junk. You give your mother a box of candy and then go home and eat most of it yourself, or else you give her hard candy that breaks her teeth or dentures.”

“Flowers are about half-dead by the time they’re delivered,” said Jarvis. “It’s really a shame to waste flowers for Mother’s Day. Florists have made millions of dollars out of my idea and they don’t deserve it.”

So what do you think? What is the best way to honor our Mothers on Mother's Day?

Get Your Business Praise On

Today is Monday. For those of you who still work in Corporate America, it is the beginning of your work week. When I worked in Corporate America I struggled on Mondays because I knew I would have to put up with a lot of craziness including breaking news, ill-advised decisions and co-workers with bad attitudes.

So do you know what I would do? I would pop in my favorite gospel CD and get my praise on before I went into work. It was like a buffer between me and the evil forces of the newsroom.

Even though I'm now my own boss, I still live in the world and still have to deal with others. So let me share how I still get my OFFICE PRAISE on through prayer and meditation.


O - Oh Lord, help me not to OFFEND anybody today
F - FREEZE my tongue, if somebody says something out of the way
F - Fill me with Your grace, so that I might stay cool
I - I'm trying to do right, but I ain't nobody's fool
C - Cause me to humble myself, before I get fired
E - Even a saint like me sometimes gets tired

P - PRAISE your name, because You've saved me, many times before
R - RISE up in me before I get in the door
A - All Mighty One, You know I need you close
I - INSPIRE me to be kind, if not to all, to most....No...To ALL!!
S - SHOW me how to be an example of Your love, not hate
E - Even me Lord, I hope it's not too late

'Today I ask God to meet me at the office door, and sit with me all day'