A lot of us would put our mothers in the running for world’s
greatest mom. I totally nominate my mommy!
One of the many amazing qualities my mother possesses is wisdom
- not just in her speech, but also in her conduct. Her life is a testament to
what planning, obedience, diligence, love for God and a host of other qualities
radiate when someone's prudent. There are a few areas that my mom has shared wisdom with me
from childhood that particularly come to mind. Two can be explained with a story. A few weeks ago, at a birthday party, I got into a conversation with someone that led me to mention two warnings my momma gave me growing up that particularly stuck with me: no sex and no debt. She was never afraid to talk to me and my siblings about saving sex for marriage. We never had just one “sex talk"; we had many. In fact, I remember being in elementary school and not yet completely knowing what sex was when my mom told me I should wait to have it. I credit her talks with planting the seeds that later led me to pursue purity. It also was because of my mom that in college I said no to those shady credit card company reps carousing my campus trying to get kids to sign up for a tab. Her lessons also taught me about the importance of financial stewardship and still govern the way I spend money today.
And then there was her constant admonishing, from James and
Matthew, that my yes should be my yes, and my no, no. Because of her
example and words, I’ve learned to keep my word.
I could go on for quite some time, but I have to stop
somewhere. I’ll end with highlighting what she taught me about prayer – to do it without ever ceasing. Growing up my siblings and I would sometimes groan
when my mom was about to pray, because we knew that we were going to be there
for a long time (and my dad always made us have long family devotions studying
the Bible, so, not always to our delight, we had full-fledged church in our home several times a week!).
Through her example I also am still learning to devote myself to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And what I love too is that in Sunday School growing up,
whenever kids in her presence said that they couldn’t pray aloud because they
were too scared, she let them know that they should snap out of that, because prayer
was simply a conversation with the God who loved to hear them. As a high school
and college student one of the greatest joys I had being a first grade Sunday School
teacher in the same children’s department of our
home church where my mother has served for more than two decades was seeing the kids
become more and more comfortable just having a conversation aloud with God
as I repeated my mother's words throughout the school year. And I’m still encouraging kids to pray
aloud now – and, in turn, helping them learn to talk to God more openly when they’re
in secret, too.
It’s also my desire to be a mother, and for my kids to spend
a lot of time around my mother (who is certainly itching to be called grandma,
lol). There are many capable and virtuous women, but I believe, truly, that my momma surpasses them all.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy!
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