My Mother's Birthday is today!
I want to take this opportunity to pay a special tribute to a wonderful God-fearing mother who has been the cornerstone of my family all these years!
Her name is Dorcas Chan. She has 3 children - two older girls and a younger
boy who was always accused of getting pampered by his mother.
Yes, my mother was not the most perfect mother in the world.
In fact she has made her fair share of mistakes raising her children.
But she was a mother who has always put her children's needs before herself and never once did she say things like "do you know how much I have sacrificed for you" to her children.
She would babysit other children for extra income and every cent of it would be
used to buy the best vitamins, books and food for her children. Not once
did she set aside anything for her own benefit while we were growing up.
Everything she did was with the best intention for us. Her faithfulness to
pray for her children is still unwavering till this very day.
The thought of writing this tribute to my Mother came up when I had a
conversation with my sister recently. She is considering sending her 1st
child to a more English-speaking primary school instead of a Chinese school.
One of her many reasons were the fact the she knows that she will have a
terrible time teaching her son Chinese. She foresees a lot of shouting,
crying, frustration, spending late nights making sure he finishes his
Chinese homework and etc. I gave her a lot of reasons why it is still good
to go to a Chinese school but one thing I forgot to tell her was that
raising a child will not always be a walk in the park. I know I don't have
my own child yet and I can just hear my sister saying that "it is easy to
talk now but wait till you get your own child". Yes I cannot speak from my
experience of raising my own child but I can definitely speak from my
experience of being a very difficult child.
I remember days when my Mom would force me to play the piano, learn my
spelling and Chinese. Those were very frustrating days for my mother and I.
I hated it back then but looking back I am glad my mother did all she could
to make sure I had every opportunity she could give me no matter how hard it
was for her. I even remember some nights where she would breakdown and cry
out of her frustration and love for me.
You see, growing up I was a very thin, short geeky looking, playful kid with a
very short attention span. I didn't like to read books with words, I didn't
do my home work and I was lousy in sports and music. I could not even
wash my own behind for the longest time.
Despite all this, my mother has always been proud of me. She has always
given me her best and she has never shown me that she was disappointed with
me.
This was much to the annoyance of my sister who used to say that our mother
was being bias towards me. You see my sister was always the smarter one,
the more disciplined and the more independent one. She is very artistic, she
could draw and she was pretty. She always had the attention of boys and was
always getting 1st or 2nd in class. She had a lot of leadership positions in
school, played the piano, the violin, a bit of guitar, and even the harp.
She had 9A1s in SPM and got into UM to study Dentistry.
In spite of all this she could not understand why our mother paid more
attention to me and gave me more help. It made her wonder why our mother
was bias towards me. What she didn't know was that I used to wonder the same
thing about why God was being bias towards my sister. I now realize that it
was not that our Mother was bias towards me, it was the fact that she saw
that I needed more care and love to grow.
As a result of this, I grew in confidence and self-believe in spite of my
lack of intellectual achievement or talents. Because she was proud of me
no matter how I fared in school or sports, I became brave to try out new
things. Because she was so encouraging, I was not afraid to fail and thus
gain new skills and talents I never knew I had. She gave me the confidence to
face the world no matter what by sending to me Scripture Union Camps and
through joining the Boys' Brigade. She made me feel secure to come to her
for anything even though I messed up or did something wrong. Yes, she did
discipline me when I was wrong but never once did she show her
disappointment to me. She taught me to trust in God and to always seek Him
for guidance and strength. And even though I did fall away from God many
times in my life, it was her unfailing prayers for me that has kept me safe
and brought me back to God every time.
And now that I am all grown up, I realize that although God didn't give
me those gifts that He has blessed my sister with, He was preparing me
to receive another type of gift. This is the gift of empathy. As a result of
my childhood experience, I can now identify with youths that are not the
most talented or gifted among their peers. I understand how they feel - their
insecurities and their feelings that they have been short-changed by God in
this life. God has now given me a purpose and placed me in Methodist College
Kuala Lumpur. In the mists of all the very bright, intelligent and talented students
that are going to Oxford, Cambridge, and other Ivy leagues Universities from
Methodist College Kuala Lumpur, I sometimes find a student who feels the way
I used to feel. And because of my own experience I can empathise with them
and show them the love, encouragement and hope I had received from my
mother.
But all these would not have been possible if not for my mother's
unconditional and unwavering love for me. I am who I am today thanks to her!
I am indeed blessed to have a mother like her and I pray that I will make
her proud by being a blessing to my own family and to others around me.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
