And so my life has been guided All the love that I needed was provided And through my mothers sacrifices I saw where her life went Give me more than birth to me, more than life to me And this ain't one little cliche about black women and being strong Cause, hell, if you're week, you're gone But life courage determined to do more than just survive And too many homes have a missing woman or man Without the feeling of missing love Maybe they are homes that are hurt But they are no real life's that hurt without reach But not broken Unless the homes of soldiers, stationed overseas Or lost in battles or broken Unless the homes of firemen, policemen, construction workers Seamen, railroad men, truckers, pilots Who lost their life's, but not what their life's stood for Because men die, men loose, they are lost and they leave It is the women I came from what they called "a broken home" But they ever really called it "a house" They would have known how wrong they were We were working on our life's and our homes Dealing with what we had, not what we didn't have My life has been guided by women But because of them, I am the man God bless you mama, and thank you