Shirley Caesar - I Love You, Mama lyrics

You know so ofttimes people ask me Shirley. why is it that you sing about mothers so much? But you know, my Mama has been both mom and dad for me Maybe many of you don't know it, but my mother is a semiinvalid Today I'd like to just say thanks, Mom Thanks for sharing and caring about me The many nights that you laid awake while I was out on the road singing And many nights, many mornings rather, you wouldn't even go to sleep Until you'd hear me put my key in the door I wanna say thanks for the many mornings that you'd get up And would fix us some lunch when so many kids didn't have anything to eat And I remember, in my little ol' selfish way I would complain Because I had to take biscuit and a piece of meat between the bread to school And the children would laugh at me and I'd come home crying, saying Mama, I don't take that to school anymore and my Mama would say thanks Because I remember so vividly that morning you called in the kitchen And you told me to look down in the bag I said, Mama, there's nothing down in the bag but meat and bread And Mama, I remember you took the meat and the bread out and you put it on the table And I said, Mama, there's nothing down in the bag And you said, yes, it is, that's what you told me She said, you'll take this meat and this bread and you'll go to school And whenever the children laugh at you, you tell them that every morning when I get up The first thing that I do is I put my love in that bag Thanks, Mom When Daddy died, I remember, the relatives came And they wanted to take us all from you And I remember you saying with tears in your eyes I know that nobody's gonna give me a job And I know that my check that I get each month is not going to be enough to take care of my children But some kind of way, God's gonna make a way And I remember you used to sing this song all the time "Courage my soul and let me journey on Though the night seems dark, it won't be very long Thanks be to God the morning light appears The storm is pa**ing over, hallelujah" And, Mama, we can say today that that storm pa**ed over And, Mama, I wanna say thank you for denying yourself There were times that you wanted a dress - you bought us that dress There were times when you needed shoes - you bought us those shoes There were times when you wanted to go out - you stayed home Thank you, Mama, thank you for teaching me how to love Teaching me about Jesus, making me go to Sunday school when I didn't want to go For, Mama, today when I look back over my life I can say that you been a good mom And Mama, I want to thank you for all of those whippings I got At times I'd throw rocks and break out windows and break out street lights And a time I'd go to the grocery stores and then steal twin popsicles and ginger snaps And I've looked you square in the eye and I've lied some about I been doing And you, being a good mom, you knew when I was lying I want to thank you, Ma, for those whippings I got And then Mama, I want to thank you for teaching me to understand, teaching me sharing, teaching me caring Mama, when I saw the other kids in the neighborhood, how you would take them in when they were hungry Oh, you've been a good Mama I'd like to just sum up this little tribute to you in four beautiful words And I know I can't say thank you enough, but thank you with these four words I love you, Mama, I love you I love you, Mama I love you, Mama