Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

My hero is my mom. As a teenager, she became a mother of two and had to drop out of high school. My father left her when I was 6-months-old, leaving my 17-year-old mother the strenuous burden of caring for two toddlers all on her own. Still being a child herself, Mom had incredible giants in front of her. But she clawed her way through life and boldly faced her giants one by one, day by day, and week by week.

My mother could’ve easily developed a victim-mentality early on, but she became a fighter instead. She went back and got her GED, worked a day job and continued attending night classes at the community college while my grandparents helped with raising the kids. She was determined not to sulk into a “Why me?” attitude in life. She continued her education over nearly twenty years and received her bachelors in business administration at 39-years-old and attained her CPA license at forty-four. Today, she is a successful executive and thriving professional who has been a CFO for major corporations. She has also championed causes for at-risk youth.

My mother has discovered that God never wastes our pain; our seasons of hardship can be redeemed. She can relate to that great “theologian” Rocky Balboa:

“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”

Life has its blows, but we never have to succumb to a victim-mentality.

I love to tell her story, as I did in my book 13-foot Coffins. This book will be a great tribute to mothers everywhere, but will also be extremely inspirational to any mother struggling with adversity right now—especially single mothers. It’s an amazing story of resilience and redemption.

Consider giving 13-foot Coffins as a Mother’s Day gift!