Taking a day to celebrate mom

Today, I want to celebrate a woman who is always celebrating others, the one who buys special napkins and paper plates for birthdays, the one who sends me cards in the mail with random magazine clippings that align with my dreams, the woman who tells me I'm a special person the world is lucky to have when I need to hear it most: my mom.

My mom put herself through college during her mid-20s with dreams of being a successful career woman, never intending to be a stay-at-home mom. When I was born, though, she found she loved being a mom more than anything she'd ever done, and after a few months back at her job, decided to quit to be a stay-at-home mom.

She has chosen this job daily as she's raised me and my siblings, not allowing the hurt and frustration of others' condescending attitudes toward her choice to be overshadowed by the joy and love she receives from this job. Her courageous perseverance, conviction and self-sacrifice is the clearest picture of Jesus and his love I have been shown here on Earth. Her daily denial of self for something bigger, something eternal -- embracing the joy and the heartache this kind of love causes -- as my siblings and I grow up is holy and beautiful. She is the glue of our family, an exhausting, essential role she brings joy and life to, holding our home together with love.

My mom's definition of success is completely countercultural, and she has instilled in me the values of thinking for myself and being who I am no matter what others' expectations of me are. Not so much by telling me about these values, but by living them. She is an example of a strong, confident woman who follows the dreams God awakens in her heart rather than society's dreams for her or the dreams she thought she had for herself. She is a great mom because she is wise, informative and silly at all the right times, and always my best friend.

Motherhood is a holy calling our society seeks to subvert because it is powerful in a way that terrifies the world: It is humble and challenging for both the woman and those confronted by her self-sacrificing love, a true love the lies of evil can't stand up against. A mother's love is the love of Christ hanging on the cross, real and present to our world everyday. Thanks so much to all of the mothers who are Christ's presence in this way, who encourage your children, the world and me with the way you live your life.

My mom tells me no one would be interested in knowing about her life, but to me the way she lives is the most beautiful and holy way of life I have seen, a life that reflects the beauty of God. It seems to me the world is thirsty for this kind of beauty and goodness.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. You're amazing, and I love you.

Mia Pohlman is a Perryville, Mo., native studying at Truman State University. She loves performing, God and the color purple -- not necessarily in that order.