Today, September 27, 2012 is my mother's 88th birthday. If she's having cake to celebrate, though, we won't get to share it with her because she's having a party in heaven (just imagine what a "heavenly" cake, if there is such a thing, would taste like!).
I marked her birthday by guest speaking at Lake Country Christian Academy's chapel this morning. The school is in the midst of learning lessons about leadership. Today we talked about leaders in the home, and since it was Mom's birthday, we talked about her - and her "sayings."
One of those "sayings," which my siblings & I heard quite frequently, was "we're going." Both my mother’s parents were believers in Jesus Christ. When mom was a young girl she asked Jesus to forgive her sins and come into her life as her Personal Savior. She loved to read her Bible and knew that God had placed His truth and His help in there for all of us to read and follow. As a good leader, she reminded her kids that they needed to read and follow it, too. She and my dad, even though he didn’t become a Christian until he was about the age I am now, made sure we went to a church that taught from the Bible about Jesus. My brothers and sister and I didn’t get to say whether or not we wanted to go to Sunday School and church on Sunday. We “were going!” Unless you were really, really sick, you were in church on Sunday morning. We regularly went to our kids’ groups during the week, too. My mother knew we needed to be there to learn about God and what He wanted us to know. It was important. She knew the Bible says in Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.”
Another thing my mom said was “be
nice to others.” She and Dr. Luke in the Bible reminded us to “Do to others
as you would have them do to you.” If you didn’t want someone to treat you a
certain way, then you shouldn’t treat them like that, either. Galatians 6:10
says, “Let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the
family of believers.”
My mother often said, “watch
your mouth.” Did she mean go watch yourself talking in the mirror? She did
not. It says in Ephesians 4:25 “Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood
and speak truthfully to his neighbor.” And when I was a little girl, we knew
we’d better speak truthfully to our mother, too. She always seemed to know when
we were lying, anyway, and there was always a punishment if we lied. “Watch your mouth” didn’t just mean
no lying – it also meant no swearing or coarse or disrespectful talk. She
would remind us about Ephesians 4:29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out
of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to
their needs.” If I heard it once I heard it at least a thousand times “If you
can’t say anything nice,”...say it with me...“Don’t say anything at all.”Do you hear the words “behave yourself” very often? We did. Sometimes we heard it when we weren’t following the rules and sometimes as a warning that we had better. She knew that we knew the Bible warned us to “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but wise.”
Another "momism" was “if it’s not yours, leave it alone.” My mom had a story about her cousin’s purse. Mom really, really liked it. And she really, really wanted it. So, one day when no one was looking, she took it. Yup, she stole it. She couldn’t very well actually use it because everyone would know it wasn’t hers. So she hid it behind her dresser. Every once in a while she would go take a peek at it. And you can probably figure out what happened. One day her mother found it and my mother got in a heap of trouble. Her mother, my grandma, was a good leader, too, and she made my mom return the purse. My mom says she never stole anything again. She remembered that it says in Ephesians 28, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands.”
And then there was “work won’t hurt you.” We sometimes thought it very well might. Do you like to stay sleeping in your bed on Saturday mornings? We didn’t get to. There would be knocking on our bedroom doors “Get up! Get up! There are jobs to be done!” Though I didn’t like it then and still don’t much like to clean bathrooms or dust tabletops now, my mom and my dad were teaching us that work is important and that everyone has to work. And that it says in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” When we do our work we are not really doing it for our teachers or our parents or our bosses, but we are doing it for God Himself. That should change our attitudes!
There are more sayings, but here's one last one: “be thankful for what you have.” My mom was born in 1924. She and my
dad experienced what is known in history as “The Great Depression.” That was a
time when many people didn’t have jobs or money. They went without a lot of
things; they used things until they completely wore out and when they did get
something, it was often used, not new. That experience made my parents grateful
for what they had and it was important to them that they teach gratefulness to
their own kids. We learned to be thankful for black and white TV (and only 3
channels!) even though some people did have color TV when I was young. When we
begged my parents to get an air conditioner in the summer, my dad said that he
and my mom always got along without air conditioning when they were young and
we could, too! I do have color TV now and I have air conditioning, and I am
grateful for both! I Thessalonians 5:16: “Be joyful always, pray continually;
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus.”
I am thankful for the leader that my mother was. She wasn’t a
perfect leader, but she knew the Perfect Leader; she knew Jesus. And she tried
to lead her children along the right path, the path to Jesus. She was a good
example to follow.
Here’s a poem I wrote about my leader mother. It’s called
Things My Mother Taught
Me:
My mommy taught me to be kind, To listen well and always mind. She said that I should share my toys And to play nicely with the girls and boys.
My mama taught me to try hard in
school,
To learn my lessons and obey each
rule.
She said I should put others first
And to speak nicely, not hear that
I‘d cursed.
My mom taught me to “behave myself,”
To conserve, use up all on the
shelf.
She said I should be wise with
friends
And to accept whatever God sends.
My mother taught me to love my man,
To treat him with respect as best I
can.
She said I should love real hard on
my kids
And try not to mind when they
“flipped their lids.”
Mom’s now in heaven, her life on
earth done,
She did a good job with each girl
and each son.
She taught us all what was important
to know,
Our mommy, our mama, mom, mother and
so!
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