This will be my first Mother’s Day without my mom. I will miss her. I used to call her on the way home from work. I’d say, “Hey, this is your boy.” She’d say, “Hello, boy!” And we’d laugh.
Here are the three things about my mom I respected most of all.
One, she was devoted to Christ with unmistakable clarity. I didn’t have to pay close attention in order to surmise how she felt about him. She was easy to read.
Two, she lived in the Scriptures. There she is in the picture, holding a Bible — of course. It’s just who she was. She left behind a shelf full of well-worn Bibles, marked up on every page, because she was engaging with God constantly.
Three, she gathered other women to mentor them in Christ. There was the public Anne Ortlund, the author, the big-event-speaker. There was also the behind-the-scenes Anne Ortlund, the same person as in public, but giving her life away to younger women up close, so that they would live for the Lord in the next generation.
I rise up and call her blessed (Proverbs 31:28).