By BESSIE FLETCHER

As a daughter, your mother reared you to display a certain manner of respect for her. But, occasionally, you would test that level of respect by saying or doing something you saw your friends doing, which worked with their mothers. But, you learned that wasn’t the manner of respect that your mother expected. Many times you might have heard your mother say, “I am not your friend!” “I am your mother.”

You grew up believing your mother didn’t want to be your friend, so you looked to others to find what you thought you needed in a friend.

When we consider a friend, we think of a person who is truthful, honest, confident, and non-judgmental. We want someone to share our inner secrets, to cry and laugh with, someone who gives us unconditional love.

That’s the makings of a mother-friend. If you agree, then we’ve answered the question. Can a mother be her daughter’s best friend? I say yes.

A daughter should be able to share her thoughts and feelings with her mother. She should feel she can open her heart to her mother. The comfort of a mother should be a friendly and loving experience.

As a mother, we need to switch roles to meet our daughters where they are in that moment. The age of your daughter doesn’t determine when you can stop mothering. She is looking for a spiritual relationship based on unconditional love. It’s a relationship guided by the wisdom and love of her mother. It’s a Godly love. You are her mother for eternity, even after you have completed your earthly journey. As mothers, we are to emulate the God kind of love.

Mothers, when you think you are losing your faith in your daughters, just look back at your journey and see where God has brought you from. God brought you through darkness into the marvelous light and God will bring your daughter out, too. It’s during such times that she will need the unconditional love of her motherfriend!

No matter what we do or say, God will never stop loving us. 1 John 4:16, says, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

Remember, John 3:16, “For God so loved the World he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”