I grabbed a few stats off About.com (Jone Johnson Lewis did all the work) and thought I'd share a few highlights:
- About 96% of American consumers take part in some way in Mother's Day (Source: Hallmark). Some people actually think Hallmark created the holiday, along with Father's Day, to sell cards. Haven't seen anything to support that, but it wouldn't surprise me.
- There are more than 23,000 florists in the United States with a total of more than 125,000 employees. Colombia is the leading foreign supplier of cut flowers and fresh flower buds to the US. California produces two-thirds of domestic production of cut flowers. (source: US Census Bureau)
- Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for many restaurants
Retailers report that Mother's Day is the second highest gift-giving holiday in the United States (Christmas is the highest)
Now I'm certainly not going to suggest we stop honoring our Mother's, but the day seems a bit commercialized and "worldly", don't you think? We should, and hopefully are, honoring our Mother's all throughout the year. If this is the only day we're doing anything for the one who brought us into this world, then we're in serious trouble and possibly living in a dysfunctional family.
The family is a central component to God's kingdom here on Earth. God needs a strong family unit so that all members can be fully supported in the ministry they're called to do. Knowing this, the adversary has been hard at work breaking down the family over recent years. Our families are being ripped apart, torn up, and tossed around. We're a long ways from the Cleaver's on the old TV show "Leave it to Beaver."
At any rate, I'd love to hear not about the flowers you bought for Mom or the Bath & Body Works Cherry Blossom soap you had gift wrapped, but I'd like to hear about how you show love to your Mom all throughout the year. And in so doing, you honor God by your peculiar behavior.
Peculiar Dad
I'm actually just testing this to see if it works. --Peculiar Dad
Posted by: Peculiar Dad | May 09, 2009 at 07:41 PM