10 May 2026 My super power? Being a mom
For a full decade of my adult life, I could fix broken hearts and skinned knees with the colorful suckers and Band aids I kept in my purse. Baking cookies after supper gave me the title “Mom of the Year,” and, in their eyes, I could fix anything with a hot glue gun. Those were my golden years in the sun!
But too much time in the sun causes wrinkles, as does sleep deprivation, and raising little humans results in both.
Our son, Harley, drew on my white countertops with a black Sharpie and was an early riser who ran from one adventure to the next, giving me real-life stress tests. I’ve watched him fall from a tree and from horseback – and get back up to try it again. We went from cap guns to Nerf wars, then progressed to airsoft and paintball battles. Paintballs leave the biggest welts.
My dad used to take my kids swimming in a local lake in Texas. They would gleefully run and jump from the end of the pier over and over. Then one day on the front page of the newspaper, the caption read: “The most stolen sign in the city, ‘Caution: Alligators in lake’,” with a photo of that pier! I begged dad not to take them anymore, but grandparents don’t mind their kids any better than kids mind their parents!
Our Claire loved making money and was genuinely concerned about how the money collected in offering plates reached God. After church one Sunday, I learned that she stayed behind in the sanctuary with a donation envelope, collecting money for pizza. She collected more than $11! She and her best friend would even go door-to-door, offering to sing, play the harmonica, put on a puppet show, or let you hold their dog for money. She even set up a store with her Christmas and Easter candy and resold it — her best customer was her dad.
I have smiled more every day since our kids were born. And whether you’re a natural mom, an adoptive mom, a foster parent, or someone who helped raise family members’ or friends’ kiddos, yours is the greatest influence in the world. We can build children up and point them in the right direction. We are powerful, we are superheroes — armed with lollipops, stickers and, most importantly, a mother’s love.
Happy Mother’s Day from the 501 LIFE Team!
Stefanie Brazile
Editor
