Not everyone loves Mother’s Day. For some, it’s a painful reminder of the mother than is no longer with them. For others, it’s a reminder that they could never be a mother. Still, others don’t have a mother that was much of a mother. For those, the celebration is more pain than joy.
But no one hated Mother’s Day more than Anna Jarvis.
Anna didn’t just dislike the feeling it created for her, she hated the commercialization of the holiday. She saw the cards as a lazy way to get out of writing a letter. She hated those trying to turn a buck on the forced sentimentality. She spoke out against Mother Day. She protested. She even went as far to attack a vendor selling carnations. Her efforts drove her to insanity and she was committed to a Santorum, where she would eventually die. All because she hated Mother’s day
Which is odd since the whole thing was her idea.
Anna Jarvis started the celebration as a way to honor her mother that had served as caretaker of wounded soldiers in the Civil War; she sought to honor her mother by honoring all mothers. She wrote letters, gained the support of powerful people and companies, in order to push congressmen, who were initially reluctant, to make the day a national holiday. And she was successful. That success turned to tragedy when she saw what it became. She wanted Mother’s Day “to be a day of sentiment, not profit.” Later Jarvis wished she “would have never started the day because it became so out of control".[1]
A Creator can see his creation corrupted (Genesis 6:6). Things that are good can be turned into bad. An idea of praise can be made into a self-serving mess, not just in holiday’s but in religion.
Shouldn’t we consider our creator when we worship him? Do we worship in a way that makes him hate what we do because it is has become what he never intended it to be? Does the Lord’s belong to him or have corrupted it?
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