Celebrating Mothers - The Spice of Life

Opening Song: 12 Joyful, Joyful we Adore Thee

Welcome: Poem

Mothers of Spice

We’ve heard the saying “to add a little spice to your life”

We can look around and find spices in our mothers, sisters and wives

Their beauty is dazzling

And like spices their fragrance is enticing

Like garlic their gentle touch can heal your wounds

Like a sweet kiss of Cinnamon, they can turn your day around.

Cloves, for preserving and also for pain,

Like Nutmeg, they are the bringer of fortune and fame,

Pepper, Sesame, pale Ginger to savour any stew,

Swirled into curries, Mom season our life too.

They comfort you like herbs of Basil and Thyme,

Sage and Oregano, Tarragon, Chives.

Parsley, helping the others to blend,

Our Moms also blend better than any trend

Rosemary, Lovage, Marjoram, Mint, Set them to simmer for tincture or tea,

Our Moms present us well for others to see.

Powerful Turmeric, worker of wonders,

Moms are spices of sunshine and thunder.

Bark, root and berry, leaf, seed and flower,

Yet the greatest flower of all is our mother

Born of Creation God blessed us twice,

With health and flavour from our Moms and spice.

To our Mothers of Spice a special welcome to you

Continue to season our life with your tender touch and words so true

You deserve our love in every way

So most of all Happy Mother’s Day 

Welcome!

Scripture Reading and Prayer- Proverbs 31:10-12 and 25-31

Opening Remarks:

There’s just something beautiful about spices. They have been a favourite throughout time. We all want them in our homes to season our food and to make our meals more palatable. Why do you think we love spices so much? Spices season our meals and they have a beautiful fragrance. What a great combination right?

And it got me thinking, mothers are much like spices, and they have been a favourite throughout time. 

We want them in our homes and they season our lives. Our mothers are beautiful and their presence lights up a room. What a great combination right?

I tried to source a list of the different variety of spices and the list was exhaustive as spices originate from all around the world. There are about 492, 628, 473 list of spices. So too we have mothers all over the world with different attributes and much like spices they are all unique and beautiful in their own way.

So today mothers we are blessed to have you as you truly spice up our life.

 Children’s Division - (Duet and Poem)

Dialogue- The World’s Toughest Job

Interviewer: Hi

Delz: Hi, nice to meet you

Interviewer: Have you ever done one of these interviews before?

Delz: No, this is my first time

Interviewer: OK, well it’s a new position that we are looking to open, possibly in the church. 

Let me tell you a little about the job to get started. It’s not just a job, but probably the most important job. The title that we have going right now is DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS. But it’s really kind of so much more than that. The responsibilities and requirement are really quite extensive. 

The First Category for the requirements would be mobility, this job requires that you must be able to work standing up, most or really all of the time, you would have to be constantly on your feet, constantly bending over, constantly exerting yourself, a high level of stamina.

Delz: ohhh ok, that’s a lot. For how many hours

Interviewer: 135 hours, to unlimited hours a week, it’s basically 24/7 and 7 days a week

Delz: I’m sure I’ll maybe have a chance to sit down here or there

Interviewer: Or you mean like take a break?

Delz: Yea

Interviewer: Oh no, there are no breaks available

Delz: Is that even legal

Interviewer: Of course, yes

Delz: So no lunch?

Interviewer: Yes, you can have lunch, but only when the Associate is done eating their lunch

Delz: Oh I think that’s a little intense. Even for a Christian.

Interviewer: Now this position requires excellent negotiation and great interpersonal skills, we’re really looking for someone that might have a degree in medicine, finance and culinary arts. You must wear several hats. The Associate needs constant attention. Sometimes you have to stay up with an Associate throughout the night. You must be able to work in a chaotic environment and if you had a life, we’ll ask you to give that life up. No vacation, as a matter of fact for every holiday the work load is going to go up and we demand that with a happy disposition.

Delz: That’s almost cruel. What about sleep? Would I have time for that?

Interviewer: Or no time to sleep

Delz: It’s all encompassing almost

Interviewer: That’s exactly right

Delz: 365 days a year

Interviewer: Yes

Delz: No, that’s inhumane. I do not think I would be able to do that.

Interviewer: The meaningful connections that you make and the feeling that you get from really helping your Associate are immeasurable.

Delz: (Blank stare)

Interviewer: Also let’s cover the salary. The position is going to pay absolutely nothing

Delz: Excuse me? Nooooo, nobody would do that for free

Interviewer: It’s completely for free

Delz: No

Interviewer: What if I tell you that there’s someone who actually holds this position right now, as a matter of fact there’s several persons sitting in these pews who currently holds this position actually

Delz: Who?

Interviewer: Moms

Delz: (laughs) awwwwww yes

Interviewer: And they meet every requirement that I mentioned, don’t you think?

Delz: Yes (give tribute to your mom/grandmother?

Song- M is for the Million things

Main Feature

Let’s face it church, our moms are so very important to us and we love and appreciate them all. 

We are familiar with the term “SPICE of Life”. Our moms add flavour to our life and they are indeed spices in our life. Let’s take a closer look at our spices.

S- Social: moms help their children to develop good social skills as they teach them to be sympathetic and respectful to others. They are then able to serve in society in a healthy, happy and productive manner.

P- Physical: mothers play a keen role in the growth and functioning of their children’s body. 

They also inspire their family to know their limitations yet still knowing their physical capabilities to be able to accomplish God’s purpose in their life.

I- Intellectual: Our moms are all intellectual, there’s an old proverb that simply states “mother knows best”. Mothers have the intellect to navigate through trying circumstances, sometimes unbeknownst to their family.

C- Character: Mothers are committed to persevering in spite of difficulties. A Christian mother not only models good character traits but also mould and inspire her children to adopt the character traits of Christ.

E- Emotional: Mothers teach their children to be emotionally healthy, they want them to be self-aware, self-confident, assertive and resilient as they live an emotionally balanced and fulfilling life.

S- Spirituality- Many of us are living testimonies of a praying mother. I feel encouraged to recount a personal testimony of the prayers of my mother while I was in University pursing my MBA. Just to provide a backdrop at the School I attended, final assignments were like final examinations. Once you submitted your final paper, there was no going back to retrieve it to make changes or to even add or take away from your submission. 

If you did miss a submission deadline the only way you can submit a late document is if you submitted a medical report stating that you had a severe ailment, like dengue or yellow fever.  

So I submitted what I thought was my completed assignment on a Thursday afternoon; suffice it to say it was a hectic Thursday with no sleep the previous night and mild panic attacks throughout the day. However, I collated my assignments at work and submitted them. On the following Friday I returned to work, somewhat relieved from the events of the previous day, only to discover that one of my assignment was partially submitted as fragments of it was still on my desk. Like any level headed over achiever I panicked, as a stir of emotions swept over me, and like every other mummy’s girl, my first phone call was my mother. I retrieved to the washroom and began sweating my eyes out. I felt defeated and all my mother can say is “hang up and call the School then call me back”. I thought to myself “here I am crying and this lady not even offering comforting words”. However, I obeyed and made the terrifying phone call to the School only to be told that I cannot submit the document. I hung up feeling even more defeated, while contemplating my next move, I received a phone call, to my dismay it was the School, the head of the department called back and said “hurry and bring the document as fast as you can”. Now I was elated and of course I had to tell my mom the good news. As I recounted the recent occurrence she was on the other end of the phone shouting “thank you Jesus, you answered my prayers”. You see friends while I was frazzled and frantic forgetting to pray, my mother was petitioning on my behalf.  

Now I can relate a plethora of stories and consume your day about the prayers of my mother and I am certain others can join me with testimonies of their own. But to surmise we can all agree that one of the best qualities of our Mothers is when they bruise their knees for their family. 

More importantly they inspire their children to deepen their Spirituality as only God can truly help us on our path. And that is one of the best attributes of our SPICY mothers.

Moms we appreciate you. You are the SPICE of our life.

Closing Remarks

The aroma wafting from the bowl preceded it to the table. It was such a simple, inexpensive and quick meal that it should not have elicited any great excitement. But this was not the standard Ramen Noodle Soup; this was my mom's Ramen Noodle Soup. It bore little resemblance to the original. 

 As usual, she had done her magic, assisted by her abundance of spices. I never asked what she did to her creations, but I knew that there were dried leaves, exotic berries, and powders in many shades and colours that she had in her special spice drawer in the kitchen cupboard. 

 Some of the ingredients today I could easily identify. These were spices of all sorts. Maybe the light coloured pieces were from the stems of dried thyme, and I am certain the dark stalks were from the bulbs of cloves. With closer inspection I spotted what resembled pieces of dried basil. The reds I saw probably were paprika or cayenne pepper, and the browns could have been powdered ginger or dried oregano; I mused. Not that it mattered right now. 

 The soup was too hot still and so I slowly swirled my spoon round and round to cool the soup faster, watching the shapes and colours moving along in a circle. And that's when my mind did one of its tricks and took off on a path of its own choosing. 

 And I thought to myself, that this is just like life. As the soup benefited from so many different looking, different tasting ‘tidbits’, so life would be pretty stale had it not been for the colourful moms we encounter during our journey. 

 They are an unusual bunch, nonconformists all, marching to their own drummer; never minding the rest of the world. For that we admire and love them all, whether they rang our cell phones all day, sometimes just to say ‘hi’, or like my mom always unloading goodies from her kitchen, or for the youngsters chasing you out of bed at 6 am on a Sunday morning to complete household chores or seldom calling out our name to enlighten our day with random information; we appreciate them all.

 Most of them have predated us to the Happy Hunting Grounds, leaving us with just memories until we meet again. And for the fortunate ones our moms are still here creating memories with us. Yes, most of our moms do not fit society's norm, but they are truly people with golden hearts. Without them our life would have lacked much colour and spice. 

So today Moms we appreciate you and Happy Mother’s Day. May you continue to spice up our life!