A Book Review: I Love You, Mom

If your mom means the world to you, this is one way to tell her

Are you looking for a special gift for your mother this Mother’s Day (or anytime!)? I’ve found a delightful new book that is a cross between a devotional and a greeting card.

Scratch that. It’s a cross between nearly a month’s worth of daily devotions and daily greeting cards — at a fraction of the cost ($12.99) — and it’s beautiful!

I love you, Mom, written by Blythe Daniel and Helen McIntosh and published by Tyndale House, is intended to be a gift from you to your mom. It provides a space to personalize the book before you gift it, a note from the authors — a mother-daughter team — and short devotions based on a verse or two of Scripture.

But what makes it more special is that following each day’s reading is a statement, “You are…” (a treasure, thankful, kind, etc.) or “You can…” (breathe!). Each declaration is related to the reading and followed by a short letter to Mom — thanking her, pointing to character traits she demonstrates, reminders of earlier days.

(That’s the part that seems like receiving a greeting card from your child each day.)

If I were gifting this to my mother — or someone who has been like a mother to me — I would read the book myself first, underlining, adding personal notes in the margins, and adding emphasis to the love and gratefulness so well expressed by the two authors.

(And I might be tempted to then get another copy to keep. The devotional readings provide encouragement and truth we busy moms can easily forget.)

Multiple children could gift this together, adding their comments — and even Dad could add his messages to the book.

It’s all packaged in a thick, hardcover, full-color book with cheerful artwork and colors throughout. Lovely, meaningful, and not-to-be-forgotten.

Afterward

Last year, I gave the copy I’d read for the above review — oddly — to one of my interns, for her to give to her mother. She did, but before she did so, she and her siblings went through it and added their personal notes in the margins. (As if she’d read my blog post!)

She said her mom cried when she received the treasure. That seemed significant enough.

It wasn’t until the end of the summer that my intern told me her family isn’t Christian. They’re religious, conservative, and moral — but they don’t know Jesus as Lord.

I wonder — again, now — if God could use the truths in I Love You, Mom to draw them to Him.