Good Evening TXK
Imagine you just spent your VERY last dime on a totally-worth-it, scrumptious, mouth-watering honey butter chicken biscuit from Whataburger, and you don’t get paid for another three days. Every bill under the sun is due RIGHT NOW! You don’t know how you are going to make it, and you feel like you are drowning… but you desperately NEEDED a biscuit.
This is an example of my own financial irresponsibility, but like with most single mothers, my mom has never had the luxury of such self-indulgence.
For the past 24 years of her life, my beautiful, strong, independent mother, Terri Gravitt, has done it all on her own, and she has never considered the choice of financial irresponsibility. She knew hers was not the only hungry mouth to feed. My two brothers and I were counting on her and she made sure we always understood we were her top priority.
After finally escaping my dad, she didn’t just feed us physically, she fed us emotionally, mentally and spiritually, and taught us about the most important man to ever walk this earth—Jesus. She concealed the fear and anxiety of her newfound loneliness, cried and prayed in rooms all alone for many nights, and she held back the anger she was experiencing by blaming herself for the situation we were all thrust into so she wouldn’t take it out on us.
A whole day in May is set aside for mothers, but that does not even begin to do my mom justice. However, I will do my best with these next few words to highlight what a phenomenal person she is, just in time for Mother’s Day.
My mom is an incredibly gifted writer, but not being one to often believe in herself, she hasn’t always seen that. As she does each month, she wrote an amazing article in this very magazine, so make sure you check it out! She once even had dreams of writing a novel, a dream I hope is eventually in the Lord’s plan for her life. I am grateful Jesus passed down her writing genes to me because I love getting to express myself, and now my love for her, in this way.
Before I ever stepped out in faith, not knowing if the floor was going to collapse below me, my mom acted as my example and took the first steps. Life truly begins when you step out of your comfort zone, and my mom has consistently embodied that truth and taught me to do the same thing.
There is no one in this life who will build me up more than my mom will. There is no achievement she won’t celebrate me wholeheartedly in, no heartache she won’t offer up her best (and sometimes unsolicited) advice during, and no LOVE she won’t fully, unconditionally pour out onto me.
I recognize some people cannot have this same type of relationship with their mom. Some do not have a mother to walk through the triumphs and pitfalls of everyday life with. Some don’t have a relationship with their mom at all.
Please understand with all your head and all your heart that everything on this side of eternity is broken. Relationships are broken, and death and pain are inevitable. Right on the other side of this life, though, is a ferocious, all-consuming love that makes even the most motherly love here on Earth look like dirty rags. There is no one, including the most loving mom, who wants your heart more than Jesus does. Rest in this promise—you will only experience a measly handful of Mother’s days without your mother here on earth, but someday you will share an eternity with The One who formed you in your mother’s womb in the first place.
So, I’d like to say, Thank you Mom. Thank you for loving me, sacrificing for me, supporting me and, most of all, thank you for introducing me to Jesus. Happy Mother’s Day!
RANDOM THOUGHT…
What is it going to take to get Ironwood Grill to give me free meals for an entire year? I will do (almost) anything… Hit me up, Ironwood!
LOCAL EVENTS
May 1-31
Student Juried Art Exhibition
TRAHC Galleries
May 2
Tee Up for Temple Golf Tournament
Texarkana Country Club, 11 AM
May 6
Big Bass Round Up Registration Party
Crossties, 6-9 PM
May 7
Big Bass Round Up Tournament
Wright Patman Lake, Sportsman Cove
For more info call 903.748.3411 or email brittany@runninwjranch.org
Annual Spring Car Show
Four States Auto Museum, 8 AM
Walk/Run for Life
Spring Lake Park, 7:30 AM
Twice as Fine Texarkana Wine Festival
Spring Lake Park, 11 AM-7 PM
May 9
Texarkana HBA Golf Tournament
Texarkana Golf Ranch, 11 AM
May 13
Farmers Bank & Trust
Arkansas Boulevard Open House
Free Burgers 11 AM-1 PM
Free Snow Cones 11 AM-2 PM
May 16
Harvest Regional Food Bank
Drive Out Hunger Golf Tournament
Northridge Country Club, 10 AM
May 21
8th Annual Clay’s Golf and Guitars featuring A Beach Boys Tribute
Northridge Country Club
Peak Fighting 19
Arkansas Convention Center, 2 PM
May 22
Smokey and the Bandit 45th Anniversary Celebration
Four States Auto Museum, 10 AM-4 PM
May 24
Gateway Farmer’s Market Opens
800 Jefferson Avenue, 7 AM-Noon
For more events visit
LIVE BANDS
May 13
T-Town 5
Redbone Magic Brewery, 7:30 PM
May 14
Relentless
The Hideout, 9 PM
May 20
Zain Braden
Fat Jacks Oyster & Sports Bar, 9 PM
May 21
Heather Linn & The Deacons
The Hideout, 9 PM
May 28
Nix Creek
The Hideout, 9 PM
